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ACEOSS THIBET 



BEING A TRANSLATION OP 



DE PARIS AU TONKING- A TRAVERS 
LE TIBET INCONNU'' 



GABEIEL 'BONVALOT 



oW^ 



WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN BY 
PRINCE HENRY OF ORLEANS 






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^yUi/ 



TRANSLATED BY C. B. PITMAN 



NEW YORK 

CASSELL PUBLISHING COMPANY 

104 & 106 Fourth Avenue 



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Copyright, 1892, by 
CASSELL PUBLISHING COMPANY. 



All rights reserved. 



'^X i%^ 




MERSHON COMPANY PRESS, 
RAHWAY, N. J. 



ACROSS THIBET. 



CHAPTER I. 



AMONG THE LAMAS. 

How the Journey was Suggested— Rachmed — At Moscow — Through the Ural Moun- 
tains — Arrival at Djarkent — Organizing the Caravan — At Kuldja — Father Dedeken — 
Abdullah, the Interpreter — Across the Tien-Chan — ^In the Province of Hi — Kirghiz 
and Kalmucks —Chinese Justice — The River Kungez — ^Moguls — Exposing the 
Dead — Visit to a Grand Lama — A Lama Monastery and Pagoda — Timurlik — 
Kirghiz Immigrants — Valley of the Tsakma — The Joy of the Desert. 

It used to be the fashion to invoke the 
muses before one began to write a narra- 
tive, but all that is out of date, and, for 
my own part, I would simply entreat 
the cross-grained rheumatics and treacher- 
ous fever to be so kind as to let me keep 
my word with my publisher, and write 
him with as little delay as possible the 
story of a journey which I undertook 
with great ])leasure, and which, as I must 
frankly admit, it is much less agreeable 
EACHMED. to put upon paper. 

In January, 1889, we were talking, at 
the house of my good friend Henri Xjorin, as he reminded me 
upon my return last winter, about travel and exploration, and he 
asked me if I had any fresh project in view. I told him that a 
very interesting journey would be one from Paris to Tonquin over- 
land, cutting out a route of one's own across the whole of Asia. 
And when he asked me to indicate my probable itinerary upon 
the map, I drew a line through Chinese Turkestan, the higher 
tablelands of Thibet, and the valleys of the great rivers of China 




2 AGEOSS THIBET. 

and of the ludo-CIiiuese peninsula. Those wlio were looking 
over my shoulder thought this scheme a splendid one, but, for 
my own part, still feehng the effects of my journey over the 
Pamir, I v/ould not allow myself to think of putting it into 
execution, for the good reason that when I let my fancy tui-n to 
travel I am sure to be carried away by it. 

A few months later, on coming back from the Exhibition, 
where I had been to catch a glimpse, as it were, of the distant 
lands in which I had wandered, this same friend wrote to say 
that there was a person desii'ous of traveling with me in Asia. 
The first thing to ascertain was whether it was someone pre- 
pared to follow me blindfold, for my intention was not to play 
the globe-trotter but to explore. I was told that this was so, 
and, forgetting all about my resolve to take a rest, I plunged into 
the study of the narratives of Father Hue and Prjevalsky. 

Little time was lost in coming to an understanding with the 
Due de Chartres, who offered to participate in the expense of an 
exploring expedition in which his son was to take part. We at 
once agreed that our undertaking should be a national one, and 
that the collections we might make should be handed over to 
our Museums. My future companion. Prince Henry of Orleans, 
was delighted at thfi plan Avhich I submitted to him, though it 
was a somewhat vague one, for traveling has this much in com- 
mon with war, that, before getting upon the ground, it is idle to 
commit one's self to any positive ari'angements. 

The preliminary preparations ha^dng been rapidly completed, 
we left Paris on the 6th of July, just when Paris was in the full 
fever of her Exhibition. At Moscow we were to l^e joined by 
Rachmed, my faithful companion during my two pre^dous jour- 
neys, he having been found out for me in the Caucasus at the 
place where I had expected he would be, for I knew where 
Rachmed prefers to live when he is not on the tramp. The 
worthy fellow was preparing to come to the Exhibition, by way 
of realizing a dream he had for some time been cherishing ; his 
ticket had been taken and he was about to embark at Batoum, 



OBQANIZma THE CARAVAN. 3 

when lie got my telegram, saying that if lie cared to come to 
China mth me he was to go and wait for me at Moscow. So 
he went and changed his ticket for one to Moscow, not in the 
best of humors, for it cost him a pang not to see the Exhibition. 
Still he did not hesitate, being afraid, as he confided to one of 
my friends, that he would displease me. Rachmed is an Uzbeg 
by birth, and belongs to one of the branches of that fine Turkish 
race which, as I am never tired of repeating, comprises so many 
noble specimens of humanity. 

In Russia we were treated most handsomely, and furnished 
with all necessary letters of recormnendation to the Consuls along 
the Chinese frontier. Remaining at Moscow only long enough 
to make the many necessary purchases, we just stopped at ISTijni- 
ISTovgorod, went down the Volga, ascended the Kama, and 
traversed the Ural chain of mountains. At Tinmen we again 
took boat, and landed at Omsk, whence, after making some 
purchases, we started again for Semipalatinsk, where we pur- 
chased the European goods which we were afraid of not being 
able to get at the frontier itself, and, after being very much 
jolted in a tarantass, arrived at Djarkent, the last town on 
Russian territory. 

Before entering China we had to organize our caravan and 
recruit the staif needful for carrying out our project, but I will 
spare the reader an enumeration of the details and trouble en- 
tailed by these preliminaries of an exploring party. Let me, 
however, say that the thorough organization of a caravan, for a 
journey which is to end Heaven knows when or where, is the 
most difficult part of an explorer's work. In the Asiatic coun- 
tries we were about to traverse vehicles are not used and the 
rivers are not navigable, being obstacles instead of means of com- 
munication as they are elsewhere. It is imperative, therefore, 
neither to forget anything nor to take a single superfluous article. 
So one tries to think of everything, to foresee all contingencies, 
and, after having eliminated as much as possible, it is astonishing 
i;o find how heavy the load is. 



4 AC'EOSS THIBET. 

Mean while, we had to recruit our men at Djarkent on the 
frontier of Siberia. This was most difficult, for here we could 
only secure men very much below the mark, and not at all built 
for a long journey. E-achmed inspected them first, and, in pre- 
senting them to me, his unvarying observation was, " They are of 
no use for the road." I could see that he was right. There was 
not one of them who had respectable antecedents ; they were a 
pack of lazy and penniless fellows who were anxious only to get 
across the frontier in our wake. Among them there is not one 
of those adventurers, vigorous and ready for anything, who have 
abeady looked death in the face, and would go through fire after 
the leader whom chance had given them, provided that leader 
had succeeded in attaching them to himself by a mixture of good 
and of bad usage. How much we regretted not having our 
base of operations in Russian Turkestan — at Samarkand, for 
instance, where there is no lack of good men. It is true we 
had three Russians who would suit us very well, but they made 
it a condition, when they took service with us, that they should 
not go beyond the Lob Nor. 

S'ejytember 6. — We left Djarkent on the 2d, and, marching by 
short stages, reached Kuldja to-day, and were most hosjDitably 
received by the Russian Consul and his secretary. We spend a 
few hours very pleasantly with the members of the Belgian 
mission, one of whom, Father Dedeken, has completed his 
engagement, and is about to return to Europe. As he has an 
appointment at Shanghai, he mil go mth us to the coast, and 
perhaps accompany us to Europe. He speaks Chinese, and as he 
is a man of strong will we are glad to have our party reenforced 
by him. His Chinese servant, Bartholomeus, who is to accom- 
pany him, is honest — which few Chinese servants appear to be — 
but very obstinate, which, on the contrary, seems to be veiy 
common in China. 

Prince Henry, Father Dedeken, Rachmed, Bartholomeus, and 
myself form the nucleus of the expedition. We have, too, an 
interpreter named Abdullah, who speaks Chinese and Mogul, and 



ABDULLAH, THE INTEEPliETER. 














FATHER DEDEKEN. 



who accompanied the celebrated Prjevalsky. He seems to be an 
honest sort of fellow, but his vanity, his boastfulness, and his 
talkativeness make us very uneasy. 

His account of what he went through in the Tsaidame alarms 
■our followers, and he seems bent upon dissuading us from under- 
taking anything out of the beaten tracks. It must be added 
that the Russian Consul at Kuldja is not much more encouraging, 



Q ACROSS THIBET. 

and when Piince Henry tells him we are going to tiy to reach 
Batang he smiles incredulously, and advises him not to be lured 
on by that idea. He points out to us that we have no escort, no 
felt tent, no Chinese passport. But experience has taught us that 
one can get on mthout either of these three things which he 
regarded as indispensable. As regards the passport, I must sa}' 
that the main cause of our success was our omission to give notice 
of our journey to the Tsong li Yamen at Pekin. By asking for a 
passport to travel in those parts of China which have been little 
visited we should have excited the attention of Chinese diplo- 
macy. The Mandarins would have given us the warmest letters 
of recommendation, and then, as soon as our itinerary was known, 
would have sent orders for every sort of means to be used to stop 
us on the road, and compel us "to turn back. Such has been the 
lot of all travelers in China, from the late Prjevalsky down to 
Richthofen, Count Bela-Szechny, and so many others who have 
been stopped in their journeys by various devices. 

After having completed our caravan as best we could at 
Kuldja, all we wanted, in order to continue our jom'ney, was the 
authorization of the Chinese governor of the province. This was 
granted us after a visit in which etiquette Avas very carefully 
observed, insomuch tlfat we were offered three cups of tea and a 
bottle of champagne, and the Governor gave us two safe-conducts 
to take us to the frontiers of the province of Hi. 

September 12. — To-day the small European colony kindly 
escorts us to the gate of the town, and cordially mshes us a safe 
journey and happy return home. 

And so at last we find ourselves in the saddle. We first make 
in an easterly direction, but change our course as soon as we have 
crossed the Tien-Chan, as it is Tonquin that we have in view. 
Shall we ever get there, and, if so, by what route ? There is all 
the old continent to cross, the least known portion of China, 
Thibet and its highlands, the deserts and the deep rivers, to 
say nothing of the human beings Avho look upon eveiy stranger 
as an enemy. All this I might have said to myself, and to these 



IN THE PROVINCE OF ILI 7 

reflections might have added that we were only five or six to 
face an unknown situation before which so many others, better 
equipped and prepared, had quailed. But I must confess that I 
had not one of these rhetorical thoughts in my head when 
once I found myself fairly started, abandoning myself to the 
pleasure of being in the open and looking about me with the 
eager curiosity of the traveler whose eyes, almost starting from 
their orbits, scan the horizon like a hungry hawk in search of 
prey. 

After getting quit of the dust, which reminds me of 
Turkestan, the soil, the landscape and the cultivation of the 
plain recall the neighborhood of Samarkand and Tashkendt. 
The beardless faces, the sunken eyes, and the long dresses of 
the men show that one is in China. The fertility of the valley 
of Hi is remarkable, so that for the last few years its population 
has been growing very rapidly. A great many of the Tarantchis 
who had fled to Russian territory are coming back to the places 
which their forefathers had cultivated, and a number of emigrants 
come from Kashgar, and even from Eastern China ; but it will 
be a long time before the inhabitants are numerous enough to 
cultivate to the full extent this region, which would feed hundreds 
of thousands. 

Leaving the valley of Hi to our right, as far as Mazar, built 
upon an affluent of the Kach, we followed a very good road, 
frequently coming upon villages which have been abandoned by 
the Tarantchis, who, having taken part in the massacre of the 
Chinese, fled when the province of Hi was transferred from 
Russia to China. The houses are falling into ruins, and are 
gradually disappearing amid a growth of willows, poplars, and 
vines ; weeds choke up the gardens ; the irrigating canals are 
dried up, and the fields are fallow. Deserted though the soil 
is, however, it has not ceased to be generous ; it is arrayed in 
verdure, and its aspect is bright and cheerful. 

One of our men recognizes the house in which he was born.. 
The roof has fallen in, the door has been carried off, for fuel no 



8 ACROSS THIBET. 

doubt, the walls are all cracked, and there are patches of barley 
growing at the extremity of the hearthstone. The Tarantchi 
was overcome with grief at the sight of the place all in ruins, 
and recalled how happily he had lived there with his parents, 
what fine crops they grew, and how cheap the food was. 

I asked him why he had not remained there. 

" We killed too many Chinese, Solons, and Sibos," he replied, 
" and upon the Chinese returning we fled." 

" Now that you have crossed the frontier, mil you retm-n to 
Djarkent ? " 

" Heaven preserve me, no ! The soil is not good, and water is 
scarce. I shall go to Kashgar, where the family of one of my 
wives lives." 

" Were you not married at Djarkent ! " 

" Yes, and I had a child as well. He died the day before I 
came to offer you my services, and I gave my Avife back to her 
father. I am quite free." 




THE CAUAVAX ON THE MARCH. 



KIRGHIZ AND KALMUCKS. 9 

The facility mth avMcIi this Mussulman abandoned his wife 
surprised me, but in this country it appears to be quite common. 

What this Tarantchi told me about Hi was repeated to me by 
many others. Most of those who live in Russian territory are 
on the lookout for a chance of slipping across the frontier. The 
Chinese Mandarins have the wit to entice them ; they do not ask 
them for papers. They let them settle on the uncultivated lands, 
and do not bother them about the past. 

In the province of Hi, beyond Mazar, we meet a great many 
Siberian Kirghiz, whom the excellence of the pasturages along 
the affluents of the Hi has attracted. They have kept the chiefs 
whom they had elected, being Russian subjects. By order of 
the Chinese Mandarin, and with the assent of the tribes, these 
-chiefs Avill transmit their powers to their descendants. 

Side by side with these very wealthy Kirghiz we see some 
very poor Kalmucks. The rich pastures and flocks belong to 
1;he former, while the latter are relegated to the less fertile tracts, 
which they cultivate without gaining a sufficiency. These 
Kalmucks are certainly not taking in appearance. They are 
frail, badly fed, badly housed, badly clad, and have a placid 
rather than an energetic and intelligent air. Nevertheless, they 
have for some time been intrusted with the defense of the coun- 
try, and they must not leave the place assigned to them without 
asking permission from their chief. They are not only bound to 
the soil, but are liable to be requisitioned for police or orderly 
duty, and must have in readiness the saber, the flint-lock gun, or 
the bow. Theii' " banners," to the number of twenty, distributed 
over the Tien-Chan, play more or less the same part as those 
families which in Austria were established in the south of the 
empire in the region of the " military frontiers," as they were 
styled. Their neighbors do not appear to hold them in high 
esteem, for a Kirghiz, to whom I observed how mild a physiog- 
nomy these Moguls have, replied with a laugh : 

" That is true. They ai'e as mild as cows." 

" In what way ? " 



IB 



10 ACROSS THIBET. 

" Because they can be milked witli(nit any trouble." 

It appears that the Kirghiz, who are daring, well armed, and 
unscrupulous, do not think twice about cheating and pillaging' 
these Moguls. As the plunderers are Mussulmans they can 
easily settle matters with their consciences, seeing that the vic- 
tims are Buddhists, that is to say, people who have no " book," 
neither a Bible nor a Koran, and so are of no account. 

The Chinese authorities intervene but rarely to mete out 
justice to those who are aggrieved ; the offenders are nearly 
always out of reach in the mountains, where they find it so easy 
to hide, and then again it is easy, in this case, to obtain from 
their family or tribe either a tax which may be in arrears or a 
present which in ordinary times would be mthheld. But when 
brigandage has reached such a point that there is no sort of 
security the authorities resort to a ruse. By dint of promises 
and fair words, the chief who is the instigator of the trouble is. 
enticed into the town and got rid of in some way or other. For 
instance, he is put into a cage between two impaling poles, and, 
by way of warning to offenders, he is left to die in this horrible 
postui'e. Sometimes it is a week before his agony ends in death. 
Having lost their leader, the nomads are thro^\Ti more or less into 
confusion, and advantage is taken of this to obtain some kind of 
submission. 

The Chinese authorities have succeeded in embodying a certain 
number of Kirghiz, in registering them, so to speak. Thus we 
observed that the horsemen whom we meet wear round the neck 
a small tablet in a felt bag. When I ask what that means, I am 
told that for some time past every Kirghiz who is going into the 
town must hrst appear before his leader and ask him for one of 
these tablets, upon which his name is ^viitten in Turkish, in 
Chinese, and in Mogul. It is a passpoit which enables him to- 
move about freely in the bazaars, and in times of distui'bauce 
any Kirghiz caught without it is arrested by the Chinese soldiers 
and visited with the most terrible punishments. On returning- 
to his tribe the traveler has to return the passport to his chief ^ 



THE RIVER KUNGEZ. 11 

and in this way it is possible to ascertain who are absent, and to 
exercise some sort of police control in the mountains. These 
men, riding about with the tablet flapping against their chests, 
enable one to realize the enormous power of an administration 
when opposed to the weakness of private interests without 
cohesion. The Chinese authorities have succeeded by dint of 
patience in getting the whip hand of these nomads, who used to 
make mock of them, and have put the yoke of the law upon 
their necks. 

Septemher 15. — To-day we left Mazar, and if the bridge over 
the Kach had not been carried away by a storm we should have 
crossed that river so as to reach the valley of the Kungez by a 
neighboring pass. But we were compelled to cross the mountain 
further north and find out a ferry higher up the river. After 
having climbed up and then followed the undulations of the 
uncultivated hills, we descried the valley, a sort of terrace at the 
foot of the mountains, a grayish steppe dotted over with a few 
tents and nomad flocks. It is commanded to the east by a chain 
of mountains more elevated than that to the north, and the slopes 
of which seem to us quite bare, ^vhile the summits are not white 
with snow. 

The banks of the river present a somewhat attractive appear- 
ance, the stream flowing along like a ribbon amid verdure formed 
by poplars, willows, tamarisks which still bear a few flowers, 
liquorice-plants, barberries, and wild raspberries. There is 
abundance of water, and the. grass is thick wherever the river 
reaches, while pheasants swarm in the undergrowth. 

Passing a deserted village, we cross the small stream of Nilka 
and leave the marshy valley for the high plateau which over- 
hangs it. In the midst of tall grass we come here and there upon 
cleared plots where the Moguls have their felt tents, which ai-e 
smaller than those of the Kirghiz, lower and more pointed at the 
summit. These Moguls are busy threshing the wheat in the 
open air, in the same way as other primitive peoples who da 
not employ any machine. A pole is put into the ground in 



12 ACROSS THIBET. 

the center of tlie wlieat, wliich is laid out upon tlie ground, 
and oxen are tied to this pole and made to tramp round in a 
line, children driving them along with a stick. These chil- 
dren are stark naked and very weakly in appearance. Their 
stomachs are protuberant, and their skin, exposed constantly to 
the sun, is nearly black, while it seems to be merely thrown 
loosely over their frame, and to be about to come off whenever 
they raise their arms and cause their angular shoulder-blades to 
protrude. 

September 16. — This evening we reach the banks of the river, 
which is at least 650 feet wide at the point where we are to cross 
it, for it branches out and forms numerous small islands, while 
the current is very imjDetuous. We hope that in the morning, 
when the water is lowest, we shall get our caravan over without 
mishap before sunrise. From our bivouac we can distinguish to 
the north white specks in the plain, at the foot of the mountains. 
These, it appears, are the tents of the lamas engaged u]:)on the 
harvest ; and when it is over they will return to winter in the 
monastery built upon the left bank of the river. 

We are now in a Buddhist country, in a land where the 
people believe in the transmigration of the soul from one body to 
another. This does no^ tend to respect for the human body or 
to regard for the dead. While walking through the reed-beds 
in search of small birds for our natural history collection, my 
foot comes in contact with the upper part of a human skull. 
It is quite white, stripped cleaner than could have been done 
by the cleverest medical student. Upon examining it, I find 
that it is the very image of the Kirghiz skulls which I have 
had in my hand in Tm^kestan, there being the same depression 
of the occiput, the same bi'eadth of cheek, the same prominent 
eyebrows, the same protruding cheek-bones, but mth the fore- 
head apparently less developed and rather lo\ver, though quite 
as receding. We may assume that this skull was that of a man 
who did not possess any very marked intelligence, who was short 
in stature — as I learnt fiom the thigh-bone, which I picked up 



EXPOSING THE DEAD. 



13 



a little furtlier — and who had excellent teeth, as is proved 
by a fragment of his lower Jaw. The bits of clothing hanging 
from the thorn bushes show that he was not a man of wealth. 




A LAMA DOCTOR. 



This was the place were his remains were exposed as soon as the 
soul had passed into a better body. Four stakes with bits of 
stuff at the end of them indicated that the corpse was deposited 
there, and the wild beasts, the birds of prey, and no doubt the 



14 ACROSS THIBET. 

dogs from tlie adjoining tents, have cleared away tlie teiTestrial 
envelope of this Mogul, devouring his flesh and grinding his 
bones, and then the j^i'ocess of time and of weather completed 
the work of destruction. There remain only a whitened skull, a 
half -gnawed thigh-bone, and a fi-agment of jaw; the soul has 
taken its flight, and the bits of stuff at the end of the stakes are 
praying for it, for, inscribed in black letters upon a yellow 
ground, are marvelous supplications brought from Lhassa. 

Se'ptemher 17. — To-day, as we were certain of being able to 
overtake our caravan, which will be delayed in its progress by 
having to cross the feriy, we paid a visit to the Grand Lama, the 
head of the monastery. Our approach to the tents was heralded 
by the furious barking of some splendid long-hauled dogs. The 
noise brings out the lamas, young and old, who drive away the 
angry mastiffs by throwing stones at them. We explain the 
object of our visit to the oldest of them, and he sends on in 
advance two young monks, and himself conducts us to the 
I'esidence of his superior. The person who acts as our cicerone 
has an enormous head, a rather long neck, small e}^es, and a big 
face covered with warts, so that his physiognomy would not be 
very pleasing but for the mouth and the smile playing upon his 
thick lips. It appears'that this worthy man, whose age it would 
be very difficult to guess, is a celebrated doctor. His headdress 
is a greasy leather cap surmounted with a tuft, a small cap such 
as might fit a chorister ]3oy, and which is much too small for so 
huge a head, upon which it produces much the same effect as 
would a wafer on the top of an orange. For a dress he has a 
long serge robe coming down to the feet and fastened round 
the waist with a belt, while his small feet are encased in 
untanned leather, which does duty at once as stocking and 
boot. 

The Grand Lama received us very affably at the entrance 
to his tent of white felt, which was larger than any of the 
others. He himself drew aside the curtain, and invited us into 
his residence ; and we, as soon as we had entered, seated our- 



THE aBAND LAMA. 15 

selves in Eastern fashion to tlie left of the aperture. The yellow- 
looking little man asked us as to our health, offered us the 
services of his doctor, and talked to us in the most paternal and 
friendly tone. Leaving our interpreter to answer for us, we 
proceeded to inspect at our ease, but with due discretion, this 
incarnation of Buddha and his abode. 

The Grand Lama appears to be about sixty. Like all the 
priests of his creed, he wears his hair short, and being beardless 
by nature he has no need to shave. His features are regular, 
especially by comparison with those of his doctor. He has rather 
a broad face, but the black eyes are very intelligent, the mouth is 
delicate, and the eyelids very clearly defined. He is easy in his 
gestures, and has a good deal of unction in the voice. T should 
not be at all surprised if he ruled the fraternity excellently, for 
he gives the impression of being a man of mark. From time to 
time he takes a pinch of red snuff, which he puts out on to the 
nail of his thumb from an oval jade bottle with a silver stopper. 
He takes care that we are served with some tea with butter 
in it, which is the favorite drink of the Moguls and the 
Thibetans, and which I found very much to my liking upon 
tasting it for the first time. 

Behind my host there stands upon a slab a gilt statue, which 
represents the Grand Lama of Lhassa. The Grand Lama seems 
to be very like him, and has the same smiling physiognomy. 

There is nothing in the tent which indicates any effort at 
cleanliness or luxury. The whole of the furniture seems to be 
about equally neglected, and the only apparent value possessed 
by anything is a row of small Jade vases placed upon a coffer 
covered with some yellow material opposite to the entrance ; an 
altar has been raised, and some sacred images are inclosed in a 
sort of tabernacle or movable chapel, the shape of which reminds 
me of those I have seen in Italy ; and, as is the case in Italy and 
also in Spain, these saci'ed images of Buddha are carried to the 
residences of such persons as ask for them in order to facilitate 
their cure, which the doctor also helps to effect by means of 



16 ACROSS THIBET. 

remedies that have received the priestly benediction. Among 
these remedies are some truly extraordinary ones, of so singular 
an origin that I dare not explain them, for fear of being con- 
sidered improper. 

Presently there is a great noise of drums and cymbals, which 
is the call to prayer. So we take leave of the Grand Lama, who 
rises, offers us his hand, and mshes us a safe journey, with the 
same smiling face which is- seen alike in the Buddhas of statues 
and in the Buddhas of flesh and blood. The aged priest readily 
gives us permission to visit the pagoda built close to the mnter 
monastery. 

As we go out we notice the cymbal-players, who are standing 
in front of a large tent which is used foi' religious service dui'ing 
the harvest. The lamas are nearly all out in the fields, and the 
numbei' of worshipers is very small, the congregation consisting 
mainly of youths with skull-caps on theii* clean-shaven heads, 
and a long monkish robe fastened round the waist with a belt. 

The monastery consists of a congeries of houses in the Mogul 
style, f oj'ming a square. Nothing can be simpler than the archi- 
tecture of these buildings : four walls, a door, a mndow, a fire- 
place, a hole in the ceiling, some forage on the roof, and that is 
about all. As far as*we can Judge by what can be seen thi'ough 
the chinks in the closed doors, the furniture is not worth speaking 
of, for we can see only a few chests, some clothing, and a certain 
quantity of tools. Moreover, the lamas, faithful to their nomad 
habits, are said to inhabit, even dui'ing the cold season, their felt 
tents, erected in the courtyards formed by these dwellings. They 
are built of earth, rubble, and wood, and are used as much for 
cattle as for human beino-s. 

The pagoda is new, and its walls are whitewashed. The main 
door being open, we enter into a sort of rectangular barn. The 
first thing Avhich strikes our eye is the altar, upon which ai'e 
burning lamps whose flame sheds a glow upon the gilding of 
the statues. One represents Buddha in his youth, ^^Teatlled in 
smiles and seated upon a throne. Behind him a lama, in gilt 



A LAMA MONASTERY, 



17 



metal, is smiling as amiably as Bucldlia himself. Like him, 
lie lias long ears — the better to hear prayer, no doubt ; and he 
holds his hands out, one against the other, in the attitude of a 
person ready to applaud, while at the same time maintaining 
an aspect of great dignity. 

Beside the high altar, in a chapel of more modest proportions, 
is the statue of a person dressed in yellow, with an apron on the 










THE TIEN-CHAN MOUNTAINS. 



knees and a chaplet in the hand. He, we are told, is to be the 
successor of the Grand Lama, and his functions are analogous to 
those of a Christian Saint, he having charge to intercede for the 
faithful and to transmit their prayers to the proper destination. 
On the table of the altar are a number of small cups containing oil, 
and, besides these, there are bronze ewers, bells, bundles of images, 
peacocks' feathers disposed as trophies, packets of sacred books and 
printed prayers, vials containing grains or perfumes, and other 
trifles, which are, nevertheless, of high value, for they have been 



18 ACROSS THIBET. 

brought from the holy city of Lhassa. The two sides of the nave, 
if it may be so called, are used as a wai'ehouse. 

Before we left, the lama who acted as our guide showed us 
a tambourine which was used as an organ for accompanying the 
prayers ; and, striking the cymbals which are used for the same 
purpose, he, with raised forefinger and open mouth, bade us 
admire their sonoi'ous properties. Their vibrations are, as a 
matter of fact, very harmonious. Before parting mth him we 
give him a handsome " tip," and the poor fellow did not attempt 
to disguise his satisfaction, for these simple people do not know 
what wealth is, and we are struck by the ^vi-etched state in 
Avhich the Moguls encamped around the pagoda live. The 
interior of their tents is the acme of filth, and the smells emanat- 
ing from them are horrible. Nearly all the children are naked, 
the parents not having the wherewithal to clothe them. As to 
the ^vomen, they exceed in ugliness anything which can be 
imagined ; and one cannot help wondering how the most ardent 
of poets would contrive to idealize them. 

In the evening we penetrate by a small pass into the valley of 
Kungez, and encamp not far from a copper-mine, where we dis- 
cover a tiny spring, which supplies us with sufficient water for 
our tea. And this is about all, for we are on an arid steppe. 

Septemher 18. — To-day we encamp among the rushes on the 
banks of the Kungez, at a place named Timm'lik. AVe cross the 
Kungez about six miles further on, for we have to make to the 
southeast towai'd the valley of Tsakma, and the pass which 
leads there is higher up the stream. We are now on the route 
followed by Prjevalsky, and so far the crossing of the chain of 
the Tien- Chan, which barred om* route, has presented no great 
difficulties. The excursion, indeed, was a delightful one, and 
the temperatiu^e agreeable, though at one in the afternoon it was. 
100° Fahrenheit in the shade. The minimum at night was 16°, 
just cool enough to make it a pleasui'e to \YVSi^ oui'selves up in 
oiu" long wadded blankets. 

Septemher 19. — Some Kirghiz who to-day offered us hospital- 



KIRGHIZ IMMIGRANTS. 19 

ity declared themselves to be the happiest of men. They have 
water in plenty ; they sow their corn at the foot of the moun- 
tains, and find an abundance of grass in the plains for their 
flocks and herds. They do not run short of wood, for the banks 
of the Kungez are covered with thick plantations, where the 
willow, the poplar, the apple-tree (with small and sharp-flavored 
fruit), the pepper-tree, the apricot tree, hemp, the licorice-plant, 
and the hop- vine grow mid. These Kirghiz formerly lived on 
Russian territory in the neighborhood of Lepsinsk, and crossed 
over to Chinese soil because they had no routes for their flocks. 
They pay the Chinese a tax of 10 per cent. They are very 
cheerful, well fed, lusty, and mth plenty of color, like all who 
live in the keen mountain air. They do not strike us as being 
very fond of work, passing all their time in going from one tent 
to another, in eating and sleeping, though occasionally they go 
out after game. Several of them are armed mth Berdan rifles. 

September 20. — We take leave of these Kirghiz, the last we 
shall see, their tribes not extending further east. Their chief, 
named Sasan, is very proud of the Russian medal which he 
wears round his neck, and of the blue button in his hat, which 
indicates his Chinese rank. He accompanies us through the 
reed-beds, and before wishing us all sorts of good luck recom- 
mends to our favorable notice five men of his tribe whom we 
may encounter in the vicinity of Yulduz. He warns us that 
when they see us they mil take us for Chinese and make off, but 
he begs us not to fire on them or do them any harm. We at 
once inferred that Sasan's friends are Barantachis — that is to 
say, persons addicted to harcmta, the Turkish word for horse- 
stealing. 

Septertiber 22. — The two guides whom the Chinese governor 
gave us assert that they do not know the route to the valley of 
Tsakma, and Abdullah, the interpreter, who undertook to show 
us the way, led us right into a cid-de-sac. We retraced our 
steps, and the plainest common sense enabled us to discover what 
w^ould have been a convenient pass if the rain had not made the 



^^-■-'■^W^''. 



20 AC'IiOSS THIBET. 

ascent so arduous. Graiuiug the summit at last, we descended 
into tlie valle}', and re-ascended a plateau, \vhere we fomul 
refuge Ijeneath a splendid cluster of pine-trees ; a piece of bread 
taken out of our pockets and some currants picked fi'om a cur- 
i-ant-busli close by constituting oui' frugal breakfast. 

The rain ceased when we reached the summit oi the pass, 
Near the watershed we came upon a roughly defined path along 
the edge of a gorge to our left. All of a sudden a strong gust of 
wind made a large horizontal rent in the veil of mist spread over 
the landscape, and we were al^le to distinguish, far to the south, 
mountains covered with forests, the trees of which akeady had a 
powdering of snow, while above were large banks of black clouds. 
Then the mist slowly cleared off, and as the atmosphere gradually 
lightened the eye wandered gladly over a broad valley, which we 
did not suspect to be so near. Clumps of gi'een trees mark 
the windings of the rivei' Tsakma, which traverses a steppe 
extending toward the west and covering, as if with a grayish 
cai'pet, the sides of the valley. It might be su23posed to be per- 
fectly smooth, and to come down \^dthout a break to the groves 
of trees at the bottom ; but by looking closer spots of a more 
decided color can be distinguished, and the eye gradually detects 
that they are moving*. They prove to Ije gazelles, which take 
fright at our approach, and make off at full speed. It is then 
we discover that the slope, which had seemed to us quite smooth, 
is not so in reality, for the gazelles first go down and disappear, 
then come up again, only again to disappear, disclosing to us all 
the undulations of a very uneven desert, a few green patches in 
the hollows marking the places where the watei' Avhich has come 
down from the mountain has collected. 

The horizon being more distinct, thanks to the breeze, the 
view bi'oadeus toward the west, and stretches so far that the river 
is only visible as a slender thread, and gradually becomes lost in 
space. So we get once more that sensation of the desert which we 
nomads so like. Without attempting to analyse the feeliug, I 
may say that the steppe, the desei't, is a very fascinating place of 



T-^ 




^5J^r 



THE JOT OF THE DESERT. 



23 



sojourn for one who has lived in large cities, and has been put 
out of humor by the petty worries of civilization. Solitude is a 
true balm, which heals up the many wounds that the chances of 
life have inflicted ; its monotony has a calming effect upon nerves 
made over-sensitive from having vibrated too much ; its pure air 
acts as a douche which drives petty ideas out of the head. In 
the desert, too, the mind sees more clearly, and mental processes 
are carried on more easily. 

Encamping on a natural platform near a plantation through 
which the river runs, we light big fii^es, dry our clothes, and 




A MONGOLIAN TENT. 



sacrifice a good fat sheep. The sheep remaining are fastened 
together and placed between the fii'es, within the circle formed 
by the camels and horses, for we are in fear of the wolves reduc- 
ing us to starvation. 

This region, in which are to be found traces of wild boar, deer, 
and wolves, is frequented by trappers and hunters, as is proved 
by the ashes of a fire in the open, by charred logs of wood, and 
by a shelter made out of the boughs of trees. 



24 ACROSS THIBET. 

We find a very comfoi'table resting-place under a pine tree^ 
between two enormous roots. The soil had been trampled 
down, and our sleeping apartment is a thick bed of grass under 
a sort of arch, beneath which we had to creep. Of course, it 
would not do to attempt many gestures in awaking, but one 
can sleep here protected from nearly all winds, and light a fire 
without fear of its being put out by the rain, the fine points of 
the evergreen branches not allowing a drop to penetrate so far. 
There is an abundance of game close at hand, and we shall 
clearly be able to kill some stags, since we have come across big- 
thigh-bones which the wolves have not taken the trouble to 
crunch. Moreover, there is delicious water and plenty of wood 
ready to hand. 






CHAPTER II. 



TO KOURLA. 

/ 

A Good Camping -Ground— Tent Life— Arrival of Two Torgutes— Death of a Camel- 
Concerning Obos— The Gorge of the Kabchigue-gol— A Native at His Devotions- 
The Gliadik— Farewell to the Torgutes— A Pan-Turkish Empire— Yakoob-Beg. 



/J\ 



y' '/ 






Septemher 24. — After a brief stage, 
having found a suitable spot, we lialt 
to prepare for crossing the pass. I 
may say, once for all, that by " a 
suitable spot " I mean one where we 
can pitch our tent upon fairly level 
ground, sheltered from the wind or 
the snow, and, if possible, close to 
wood and water. A splendid camp- 
ing-ground such as this is not to be 
forgotten, and we remained here two 
days, busied on various repairs, ex- 
amining the horses' shoes and substi- 
tuting new ones where required, and 
taking care that there is not a nail 
^^^,^„„ loose or missinar. The backs of the 

IMATCH. O 

beasts of burden and horses are care- 
fully inspected; where the saddles gall, they are rectified, and 
the wounds are dressed; the saddle-bags and packing canvas 
are sewn where torn. 

Our old camel-drivei', the bandy-legged Imatch, who would 
not part from the camels we had bought of his master, looks 
after his charges with genuine affection. They know him, and 
when he calls to them in the steppe at feeding-time, they come 
to him like fowls to the henwife. 

Some of our men are already indisposed, and it happens that 

25 




26 ACROSS THIBET. 

these are tlie most lazy of the whole troop. They are very 
anxious to be sent back with the guides given us by the Gover- 
nor, Avho are returning. However, they must go with us beyond 
the pass, as we cannot afford to reduce our staff just now. 

We have been leading a tent-life for barely ten days, and 
already we have got accustomed to it and have learnt to like it. 
And yet our tent is neither large nor comfortable. About the 
height of an average-sized man, it is sufficiently long and broad 
to enable all three of us to lie upon the felt, to eat out of the 
single pot around ^vhich ^ve gather, and to sip our tea without 
rubbing elbows. Our shelter consists of a good piece of canvas 
sewn double, and that suffices to protect us from the bad ^^"eather, 
and to give us the sensation of being in a well-protected room 
wdiile the rain is pelting and the wind howling outside. 

The departure of the two guides provided by the Governor of 
Hi created a void, which was at once filled up by the arrival of 
two Torgutes. They came to our encampment on horseback, 
Avith their rifles slung across the shoulder, and with a long coil 
of hair banging down the back. Approaching our men's fire, 
they began to converse with them in the Mongolian language, 
and, after having had some tea, said, in reply to our questions, 
that five days before they found four of their best horses miss- 
ing, so they went in search of them. Emerging from the valley 
of the Yulduz, where their tents ^vere pitched, they found traces 
of horses, but without knowing whether they were theirs or not. 
So they resolved to visit the valley of the Tsakma, thinking that 
the thieves had passed that way. As a matter of fact, they dis- 
covered traces northward — that is to say, in the direction of the 
Kirghiz of the Kungez. But, rain falling, they could not trace 
them any further, so they retui'ued, being certain that they could 
catch us up, for they saw that we had camels. 

Upon our asking them why the Kirghiz had stolen their 
horses, they said it had always been so, and they coidd not in- 
dulge in reprisals, f(^r the Kirghiz were the stronger. Formerly 
they lived in com})lete security in tliis valley of the Tsakma. 



TWO T0RGUTE8. 27 

Then the Kirghiz came, and at first occupied part of it, but then 
they wanted to take the whole of it. For some time there was 
a constant interchange of robberies and murders between the 
two peoples, until at last the Chinese authorities intervened and 
decided that the only means of re-establishing peace was to 
compel the two parties to quit the pastures. " Since that time," 
they added, " neither Mongols nor Kirghiz have lighted their fires 
in the valley of the Tsakma." 

We had no difiiculty in inducing the two Torgutes to remain 
with us and shoAV us the way. They were much interested in 
what went on around them — in the arms which were being 
iurbished, in the birds which were being stuffed, while they were 
surprised at finding the shin from the leg of a stag which Prince 
Henry had killed being preserved. They exchanged remarks 
when they observed the terrible effect produced by the bullet of 
the express-rifie, and then, chin on hand, feasted their eyes upon 
the palao-meat which was cooking nicely in the pot, the sight of 
this completing our conquest of them. 

September 25. — To-day, after going up hill and down dale, we 
gradually climb to the ]3ass, which Rachmed and myself consider 
very easy by comparison with many others. A strong cold wind 
gets up from the W.N.W. — that is to say, at our back — but we 
are on a desolate steppe, where we can find neither a shrub nor 
anything else which can help to combat the cold that is begin- 
ning to be unpleasant. On the other hand, we come upon some 
very pretty flowers, lovely wild pansies and edelweiss that would 
delight the heai't of an Alpinist. In the evening we encamp on 
the banks of the Yulduz, which we reach by descending a path 
fi'ee from stones. The clouds conceal from us the mountains, 
which shut in the valley, and this does not add to the attractive- 
ness of the view. We are glad to huddle away in a deep gorge, 
for the wind is most cutting. 

Before night-time all our camels have come in, but one of 
them, purchased at Kuldja, is ill, and he drops as soon as he has 
got in. His burden is removed, but he cannot rise. There is a 



28 



ACROSS THIBET. 



divergency of opiniou as to whether he will recover, and the 
interpreter, who knows all about everything, says : " Wait a 
minute, and I will tell you. Tlie hairs of his tail will indicate 
to you what his fate will be." 

He pulls out a few of these hairs and examines them, after- 








THE YULDUZ VALLEY. 



ward pressing them between the thumb and the forefinger, close 
to the root, and rubbing his two fingers together. 

" I can assure you that he will die." 

"Why?" 

" Because I had no ditiiculty in pulling out the hairs, because 
the adipose tissue adheres to the I'oot of the hairs, which indi- 
cates a fatal sickness." 

The face of the little interpreter glows with satisfaction at 
having given proof of his sagacity, and in the meanwhile our 
poor camel is in his death-throes, exciting the pity of his driver, 
who ]_)uts a sheepskin undei' his head for a pilloAV. The d^dng 



DEATH OF A CAMEL. 29 

iDeast's eye is dilated and lie loses consciousness. He struggles 
as he lies, and one would fancy tliat all tlie thoughts of his past 
existence were chasing one another hurriedly through his brain. 
He seems as if anxious to go through all the acts which have 
been so often reiterated as to have become habits with him. He 
makes an effort to rise, he kicks his legs in the air as if to walk, 
he moves his jaws as if to eat, he seeks to make a noise in the 
throat as if to ruminate ; but the gaze fades away, the eye closes, 
and the good servant gasps in death. 

The two Torgutes, who are Buddhists, look on with much 
sadness, and mumble some kind of a prayer — or, rather, a few 
words wishing a safe journey to the soul which is on the point 
of transmigration. That does not prevent them, as soon as the 
soul has taken its flight, from stripping the skin oft* the body 
which held it. As the soul has fled, what could it matter ? 

Septemher 26. — To-night we have a minimum of four degrees 
below zero, and when they wake up the men complain of the 
cold. We follow the valley, which continues to run through the 
steppe, and, gradually getting further away from the Yulduz, the 
waters of which flow over sand and pebbles, we encamp on the 
banks of the Zakiste-gol, a river abounding in fish. On the way 
we meet the caravan of an important lama, and make him very 
uneasy by proceeding to photograph him, Prince Henry succeed- 
ing none the less. These worthy lamas, with their pointed head- 
gear, seem to us to be a little the worse for drink. 

The landscape remains much the same ; for we are still on the 
steppe shut in by mountains, bare, and in places quite white 
with salt, while in places there are peat-pits, where the water is 
either stagnant or runs off very slowly. We notice some arkar 
horns on the ground, but we have no time to go in pursuit of 
these animals on the mountains. 

September 28. — This evening we encamp beyond the dried- 
up bed of the river Bqrokuste, and find plenty of grass for 
the camels and hisiah (droppings) for the fire. To the north 
we can see on the sides of the mountain an inscription in 



30 ACROSS THIBET. 

very large letters. These are the sacred sayings of the Bud- 
dhists, which believers can decipher miles off. Never in my 
life have I seen such big letters ; all the slopes of the Tien- 
Chan would scarcely be sufficient to print a whole book. 
The Buddhists like to manifest their devotion in the open air, 
and when we leave the valley to reach by a pass the defile of 
Kabchigue-gol, we meet obos, or heaps of stones, upon most of 
which prayers have been engraved, at each culminating point of 
the undulating ground. 

These obos are generally placed on an eminence, at one of 
those spots where the beasts of burden are allowed to halt 
and get breath. Advantage is often taken of these halts ta 
make a light collation* after that, prayers are offered that the 
road may be a good one, when starting on a journey, while 
thanks are returned because it has been good, if the journey 
is ending. By way of shomng respect or gratitude to the 
divinity, stones are heaped up, and a pole is often placed in 
the ground, with a prayer written on a piece of canvas tied to 
the end of it ; those who follow after add more stones. Workmen 
specially employed, and traveling lamas, engrave prayers upon 
slabs and deposit them at the spot. Thus the obo is constituted, 
and the shepherds, th'e travelers, and the tiibes on the march 
swell its proportions every time they pass, the heaps of stones 
gradually acquiring such colossal proportions that they have the 
appearance of monuments. Many Buddhists deposit there images 
of Buddha, and of Tsong Kaba, the great reformer ; and small 
pyramids of earth represent chapels, as I was informed. Others 
deposit carved fragments of horn, pieces torn off their garments, 
bits of horsehair (which they tie on to a stick), or an}i:hing 
which comes handy to them ; and when they are making the 
presentation they offer up prayer. 

In order to reach the defile of Kabchigue-gol — a word whicli 
we are told means " river of the narro^v place " — we follow the 
left side of the valley. The road, which is fairly good, winds along 
the spurs of the mountain, ^vith a view to the right of the valley 



-^ r- 






^ 



f'Ji 



^-' 






M. \ 






(f- 



;\r 



— _ i" 




GORGE OF THE KABCHIGUEGOL. 33 

where tlie Torgutes have their tents, with theii' flocks and herds 
roaming over the green steppe. The sun is shining in all its 
splendor, and its heat seems excessive after the severe cold of the 
previous night. We have only to look behind us to be convinced 
that this fine weather will not last, for we can see the dark mass 
of a storm coming upon us from the extremity of the valley. The 
wind howls, the sleet and then the snow beat down upon us, 
with all the severity of winter. Fortunately we have reached 
the summit of the pass — those of us, at least, who have horses, 
for the camels come at a slower rate and do not alter theii' 
pace. 

The fury of the storm is intensified at the very moment I 
reach the large obo which indicates the beginning of the descent. 
I am alone, and the opportunity for helping myself to some of 
the numerous stones with prayers engraved upon them is too 
good to be resisted. But I had i-eckoned without the spirit of the 
mountain, who makes my horse so restive that he will not move 
a step forward. I deterinine to dismount and tie him up some- 
where, but there is nothing to be found which would answer the 
purpose ; so I get up again, and once more endeavor to bring him 
up to the obo, but the noise of the stones striking against one 
a,nother in the wind frightens him again, and, after losing my 
astrachan cap, I have to give up the attempt in despair. All 
these incidents did not prevent us from meeting in the evening 
beneath the willows of Kabchigue-gol. 

Octoher 2. — We have remained at this spot for three days, 
partridges swarming and enabling the guns of our party to 
make large bags ; they are gray in color and very succulent. A 
great many thrushes, tomtits, and wagtails people the brushwood 
and trees growing on the mountain- side. We are in the country 
of the Torgutes, and the two who have accompanied us have 
their tent in this pass. They are not rich, but own a few head 
of stock — horses, cows, and sheep. They are the descendants of 
the Kalmucks, who left the steppes of the Volga in 1779, and 
found their way back after much hardship to the land of Hi. 



34 ACEOSS THIBET. 

Those nomads tliat ^ve meet liave preserved a vague so^^venir 
of tins great exodus, and tliey tell us that tliey came from the 
country of the Grosses (Russians), " where we left the people of 
our race. It is about 200 years that we have inhabited the 
Tien-Chan." But they can give us no details ; they have forgot- 
ten the sufferings and the energy of their ancestors. They show 
us their square caps mth laps for the eai's in sheejDskin, and they 
assert that this form of headdress comes to them from the Rus- 
sians. This shows how difficult it is to get authentic infoima- 
tion as to the history of Asia. 

We are not sorry to leave this narrow gorge of Kabchigue- 
gol, despite its mldness and picturesqueness, and its Avonderful 
spring, which cures rheumatism, and which is called Archan- 
buluk (that is to say, " the spring of healing "). We meet a few 
patients here, Mongolians of small stature, well built, with verj 
small hands and feet — not the broad hands of the toiler, but the 
elongated hands of the unoccupied. Theii' head is very much like 
a round bit of wood which has scarcely had the corners squai'ed 
off, their cheek-bones prominent, their eyes imperceptible, and 
when seen in profile, it is scarcely possible to distinguish the 
nose. A lama owns a small hut near the spring, under an elm 
tree, and he is at once the consulting physician and the manager 
of this primitive bathing establishment. From him we learn that 
the young Khan, who is the heir of the Torgutes, has started on 
a pilgrimage for Thibet. 

Making a start, we emerged fi'om the defile on to the steppe, 
the approach to which ^vas heralded three-quarters of a mile in 
advance by bunches of yantag, upon which the camels fed ^^dth 
manifest delight. The change is a very brusque one, for all of 
a sudden ^ve are amid stones, sand, and a vast horizon; the 
temperature has already risen, and while an hour ago the aii" was 
fresh and pleasant we now begin to sweat. Marching along 
beside a narrow channel for irrigation, we reach a surface dotted 
with reed-beds, where the Torgutes are busy upon the wheat 
harvest, and encamp iqjon fallow ground, close to a fine elm 



A NATIVE AT HIS DEVOTIONS. 



35 



■with an obo beside it. Under tlie shade of the tree is a sort of 
altar, analogous to the ara of the Romans, in the hollow part of 
which we can see ashes and charcoal, odoriferous plants being 
burnt upon it in honor of the divinity. Resting against the 
trunk of the tree is a whole bundle of sticks with rags and slabs 
of wood, with prayers written on them, while on the branches are 
a number of skins of lambs and goats, in an advanced state of 
decomposition, which have been hung there as votive oii'erings. 









Toward evening, at the hour Avhen one is inclined to reverie, my 
attention is excited by a murmur which seems to be drawing 
nearer and nearer in the tall grass. A man appears, well 
advanced in years, the shoulders bent, and a chaplet in his hand. 
He casts an uneasy glance at me, but without breaking off his 
murmuring, and, standing upright before the obo, he tells his 
beads; then, going up to the tree, stoops down and rubs his 
forehead with the sap which he has let run on to his fingers from 
the bark. He next picks up two or three leaves, presses them in 



36 



ACROSS THIBET. 



Ms hand, and, having again looked at us, makes off without saying 
a word, muttering as he goes, " Om mane padme houm " — a phrase 
whicli thousands of men repeat all their liv^es without under- 
standing its meaning, but l^elieving that they are insuring their 
future salvation. In the course of the day Prince Heniy had 
great difficulty in photographing some of the Torgutes who were 
prowling about our bivouac. Only one of them would accept the 




SANDHILLS AT KOTJRLA. 



money we offered him, and was willing to sit for his photograph. 
They do not understand the box which is turned uj^on them, and 
they generally make off at the sight of it with terroi' depicted on 
their countenance. Like children, savages are always afraid of 
what they do not understand ; and if the person photographed 
should happen to fall ill in the course of the year his illness 
would be attributed to " that box the Europeans had with them." 
We observe that tlie young men in some cases wear a sort of silver 
ornament in the left ear, and we are told that this is an eno^ao^e- 



THE GHADIK. 37 

ment to marry the young girl who has received the fellow- 
earring as a present. 

Octoher 3, — We are again on the steppe, where we see the 
thorny plant which the nomads call toiiia Jcwiruk (camel's tail) 
and the sweet yantag, on which our camels revel whenever they 
get the chance. Then the approach to the river Ghadik, whose 
waters fall into the lake of Karachar, is announced to us by tents, 
saklis^ and cultivated fields. The Ghadik, as it runs down 
from the Tien-Chan, ramifies over a considerable surface, as if 
delighted to be at liberty in the open plain, and it embraces a 
great number of islands which are almost buried beneath a 
vegetation quickened by periodical inundations. We encamp in 
the tall grass of one of these islands, our tent being shut in by a 
thick grove of willow^s, elms, tamarisks, jujube, and licorice trees. 
There is no trace of any paths upon this archipelago, for they 
have been effaced by the waters, and we requisition some 
Torgutes to guide us through this grassy labyrinth. 

We emerged from it in about two hours, after having crossed 
several arms of the river, which are very deep at fiood-time, and 
which are certainly not fordable then. In fact, we are told that 
when the snows melt the Ghadik forms a regular lake, with the 
tops of the trees just emerging out of the water. The pasturage 
is excellent, and constitutes the w-ealth of the tribes grouped 
around the kino; of the Toro-utes. 

We had no sooner crossed the last irrigating canal which de- 
rives its waters from the Ghadik than the desert began. The 
transition is a very sharp one, and there is a difference of 
temperature before we have gone a hundred yards. Behind us 
the air is moist and comparatively warm, but now it is dry and 
very keen. A path which has been trodden in by camels, at an 
epoch when the soil was softened by rain, winds its way upward 

* The name of snkli is given to the walled square within which the tents and the 
flocks are inclosed during the winter. In most cases some sort of a shelter or hut is 
built in one corner, which serves as a shed or cooking-place when the cold is very 
severe. 



38 ACROSS THIBET. 

to a deeper depression, rimuiug in a S.S.E. direction, in a small 
mountain chain very abrupt and denuded. 

Beyond, there is a sort of valley without ^vater, sandy, and 
skirted by elevations of the soil, which are full of deep furrows 
and seem crumbling away,- with the appearance of some abandoned 
city whose monuments are falling to ruins. 

Further on, in the land of the black tree {Kara motoun), a 
name given to a species of elm planted along the irrigating 
watercourses, we again encounter the Torgutes. The last of the 
Mongolian Torgutes are to be found here ; they cultivate a few 
plots of the land, which is not very fertile, for it is a mixture of 
salt. A number of tall, well-set-up men, with black bushy beards, 
come round our bivouac ; they are the first we have seen since 
leaving Siberia and Kuldja, 

They enter into conversation with our men in Turkish, 
greeting them in the Mohammedan fashion, and one of them at 
once makes off, and speedily returns with some melons which 
recall those of Turkestan by their oblong shape and delicious 
taste. We all of us — French, Russians, Tarantchis, Kirghiz, and 
Uzbegs — are pleased at this meeting with men whom we feel 
to be closer to us than the Mongolians. We feel as if we had 
met some old acqimintances, and a very merry e^'ening is 
passed. 

If the principle of nationalities — determined by the unit)^ of 
the language — ever prevails among those who speak Turkish, 
if a kingdom be reconstituted out of the scattered members of 
this great nation, the monarch or the caliph of it will never see 
the sun set upon his dominions, and he will command a countless 
host of valiant warriors. But they would be scattered over 
more than three-fourths of the surface of the Old World, and 
that would render it difficult to mobilize them in the event of 
war. 

October 5. — To-day we have entered upon the last stage which 
separates us from Kourla. We again traversed a corner of the 
desert, and, as yesterday, low chains of crumbling marl, also 



YAKOOB-BEG. 39 

liaving the aspect of turrets, cupolas, and mausoleums. Before 
getting near to tlie Kutche-Darya, upon a heiglit commanding a 
full view of tlie plain, we could distinguish the remains of a 
fort of dry brick, built by Yakoob the "blessed one," also 
surnamed the " dancer " by the people of the Ferghana. 

This man was made in the mold to do great things, and 
Prjevalsky, the celel^rated Russian traveler, was struck with his 
intelligence Avhen he had an interview with him at Kourla in 1877. 
The good fortune of Yakoob was prodigious, though his rise was 
slow, inasmuch as he was a man of mature age when he became 
master of Kashgar and Chinese Turkestan. During the few years 
that he governed this country he displayed no ordinary activity, 
covering it with useful buildings, tracing canals, and organizing 
an army after the European model, having recruited, through 
the intermediary of the Sultan, officers in all countries of Europe. 
Several came from Turkey, and a member of the present French 
Chamber of Deputies was on the point of being employed by 
Yakoob-Beg. Heaven only knows what would have happened if 
this hardy Uzbeg had not been checked in his career. He would 
certainly have got together the " twelve thousand good soldiers " 
whom Lord Hastings in his day considered sufficient for the con- 
quest of China (this was Prjevalsky's estimate also of what would 
be required), and we should have witnessed the constitution of a 
Turco-Mongolian state, which would have extended from the 
Terek-Davan to the north of the Pamir to the Gulf of Petchili. 
But Allah had decided that Yakoob was not to go beyond 
Kourla, and it was there that he closed his interesting career 
in the fortress built by him, which still exists. He died of 
poison administered by his Prime Minister, to whom the Chinese 
made alluring promises which they took good care not to 
keep. 

In Yakoob's lifetime the people were dissatisfied at having 
been roused out of the state of torpor so agreeable to the people 
of Asia. Now, this same people, which is under the administra- 
tion of the Chinese, regret the " good time " of the Badoulet 



40 



ACROSS THIBET. 



(the " blessed one "), wlio is s2)okeu of as liaving been a great 
man, while the " bakchi " sing his great deeds at the festivals. 
The j)eople are so anxious for a fi^esh master that they ask us, 
hailing from the West as we do, if " the Russians are soon com- 
ing to take us ? " 






0^ 




'"^^^jif'/i 



A MOJSGOLiIAN L,AMA. 



CHAPTER III. 



TO TCHAKKALIK. 



Kourla — In the Bazaar — Provisioning tlie Caravan — Parpa — Visit from the Akim of 
Kourla : A " Mandarinade '" — Tehinagai — Music in the Camp — A Forest of Pop- 
lars — Crossing the Kutche-Darya and the lutchigue-Darya — Aktarma — The River 
Tarim — The " Silk Plant" — Arkan— Hard Words and Blows Compared— Talkit- 
chin— The Hat of the Tarim— At Tcharkalik. 

Oetobei' 6. — Kourla is a small town 
situated in a fine oasis. It is traversed 
by the Kutche-Darya, over which a 
wooden bridge has been built, con- 
necting the suburbs on the left bank 
Avith the bazaars and the fortress 
on the right. The population is a 
mixture of Chinese, Dounganes, and 
Tarantchis ; but, as the Mussulmans 
form the majority, the chief of the 
town (the Akim) is of that persua- 
sion. It was he who came and laid 
siege to us upon our arrival, not giv- 
ing us time to enjoy the satisfactions 
and pleasures which an oasis always 
offers to those who have crossed the 
desert ; and Kourla is charming, with its gardens, its green trees, 
its fine river, and its bazaars, where are to be found melons, 
apples, figs, grapes, and apricots, which nomads like ourselves 
find so delicious. 

We arrived in the night of this day (the 5th October), having 
done a stage of nearly thirty-five miles. We are lodged in the 
house of a Mussulman who is a Russian subject and a merchant 
in the town. 

41 




KOURLA WOMEN. 



42 ACROSS THIBET. 

October 6. — To-day we received a great many inquisitive visit- 
ors. We learn that tlie authorities are summoned to meet at 
the Yamen in the evening to take counsel together concerning us, 
and the chief asks permission to pay us a visit the next morning. 

We find ourselves in the first bazaar we have seen since we left 
Kuldja, and we shall not encounter another after we make a fresh 
start. So we buy and buy in pi'eparation for Thibet, and, with- 
out losing an hour, hire twenty-two camels, to carry oui* pur- 
chases. Among these purchases are 1600 Russian pounds of 
bread, done down in fat and salt, made up into small cakes about 
as thick as the finger and as broad as the palm of a man's hand. 
The reason of their being made so small is that a biscuit of this 
size is easy to stow away ; it can, if necessary, be placed up the 
sleeve on the march, for it may happen that while one is munch- 
ing it one may have to pick up one's gun or whip. Moreover, it 
represents in size almost exactly what the appetite demands, and 
not an atom is lost. The salt aids the digestion, and the fat is, 
of course, a preventive against cold. The purchases also include 
520 pounds of the best flour, which will l)e kept in reserve, for 
we shall only use these provisions at the last extremity; 280 
pounds of mutton, salted and done up in skins; 160 pounds of 
small raisins, very del^ate in flavor, with no pips, called "kicli- 
mich," which will be mixed with rice, and only distributed later, 
when the cold, the salt meat, the forced marches, and the great 
altitude have brought about that state of weakness which is so 
like scurvy; 80 pounds of salt, though we are pretty safe to find 
plenty in the desert, upon the surface of the soil, or on the shores 
of the lakes ; 80 pounds of sesamum oil for hasty puddings ; 
tobacco, bags, pieces of felt, and 6000 pounds of barley for our 
horses, although the interpreter Abdullah, and a man named 
Parpa, an inhabitant of Kourla, tell us that "\ve need not concern 
ourselves about them. 

This Parpa ^^^as formei'ly in the service of Carey and Dalgleish, 
the English travelers, and we have engaged him in the hope that 
he will furnish us with useful information. This adventurer. 



VISIT FROM THE AKIM OF KOUBLA. 



4B 



with a long black beard, very taciturn, and with a tragic air, is a 
native of the Ferghana, and he came with Yakoob-Beg into 
Chinese Turkestan. He gets the horses shod, makes saddles for 
the camels, and has the reputation of being a brave man. 

The preparations are rapidly completed ; we have treated with 
a Doungana whom we are to pay a high price, but he will bring 




A BIT OF THE TARIM. 



with him three servitors, two Dounganas and one Turkish Mus- 
sulman from the Oasis of Hami. 

Octoher 7. — Returning to the house to-day, we find the servants 
of the Akim, who announce the coming of their master. Soon 
afterward there arrive, followed by an escort, some mandarins, 
dressed in the Mohammedan style, but wdth the Chinese head- 
dress — a globular hat, and wearing the pigtail, which is the 
mark of vassaldom that the Chinese insist on from the Moham- 
medans, whose head is generally shaved. So the head men of the 
town, most of them advanced in years, enter our room. We 
offer them seats on the white felt which has been unrolled for 



44 



ACROSS THIBET. 



them, and wait for them to question us, without uttering a word. 
They begin the conversation in Chinese, politely asking as to our 
health, congratulating us upon having made a safe Journey, and 








4l 4v'' 




raHABITA^fTS OF KOURLA. 



promising us their help. Between ^vhiles their attendants j)lace 
before us an offering of dried fruits, melons, and almonds, in ac- 
cordance with the custom of Turkestan. AVe thank them mth 
the utmost cordiality for their good-nature, and then wait to see 



COMPLICATIONS. 45 

what is to follow. It is easy to see tliat tlie chiefs are somewhat 
embarrassed ; they exchange a few words, and then the one who 
is highest in rank begins to make a rather solemn speech, pointing 
out that it is a habit to ask strangers for their papers. To which 
I reply that it is a very good custom, as it is impossible to take 
too many precautions with regard to strangers who come on to 
the territory of others. As concerns ourselves, he has seen by 
our cards on red paper, and written in Chinese characters, that 
one of us is a prince allied to the Kings of the West, and that he 
must be aware that the White Pasha has facilitated our passage 
through his states, and that we hope the Emperor of China will 
not be less obliging. Although we did not understand why 
papers should be demanded of us at Kourla, after we had been 
allowed to cross the frontier and go through the province of Hi, we 
were willing, in order to please him, as he was so kind to us, to 
let him have the general pass, which had been seen by the Gov- 
ernor of the province of Hi. He asked our leave to keep it, which 
we give all the more readily because we know from Prjevalsky 
and others that in China papers are only of service at places 
where they are not required. After an interchange of respectful 
and dignified greetings the chiefs go off. 

What will happen to-morrow? We foresee complications, 
and Rachmed, who is much affected by all this, fully realizes our 
position. He says, " It is the beginning of the ' old story,' and 
the Chinese are going to bother us as much as they can. It is 
not surprising on the part of people who eat pork." And so 
Kachmed rattles on, loading with opprobrium this people, which 
allows its women to have wooden legs, which emits an odor in- 
tolerable to a true Mussulman, and so on. 

The chief result of this interview is to make us hurry forward 
our preparations, for we have seen the advance-guard to-day ; the 
declaration of war will be brought us to-morrow. 

The same evening before sunset the chiefs of Kourla arrive in 
full dress, and, almost before the greetings have been exchanged 
and the cups of tea served, the Akim tells us to visit the Gover- 



46 ACROSS THIBET. 

nor of Karacliar before continuing our journey. We reply that 
tlie Governor is a person of too little consequence for us to turn 
aside from our route to go and see him. " If lie wishes to say 
anything to us, let him come and say it. Moreover, he must 
have seen our papers." 

" Your papers are of no value, and, to tell you the truth, here 
is the order to arrest you which has arrived from Ouroumitchi at 
Karachar." 

We display great surprise at this, and ash him to let one of 
our men read this order. And then the conversation is resumed. 
as f olloAvs : 

" Where is our pass then ? " 

" At Karachar." 

" Well, we shall keep your order until you have restored the 
paper we confided to you, for you have it in your possession, and 
you are not speaking the truth." 

I accordingly take the order, put it into my pocket, and re- 
quest them to go. 

The small Chinese mandarin who had brought it gets as pale 
as his yellow complexion admits of his doing, and begs us to re- 
store it, makins: a motion with his hand across his throat as much 
as to say that he will lose his head if he does not get the order 
back. I repeat that he shall have it if they restore us our pass, 
and when they again deny having it we make them leave, saying 
that the sun has set, and that we want to rest. 

They go off very crestfallen, and a few minutes later one of 
the chiefs returns, holding the pass in his hand. He offers it to 
us and we take it back, promising to restore him his order, but 
only the next day, in order that we may have it photographed. 
This photograph is reproduced, and the translation has been 
made by the Marquis d'Hervey de St. Denys. It is as follows : 

"I, Han, sub-prefect, having the honorary title of Foutchi, 
fulfilling the duties of prefect of the district of Kola-Chacul 
(Karachar), have received from the temporary governor Wei an 
order thus conceived : ' At the present time, a prince of the 



A CHINESE WARRANT. 



47 



blood in the kingdom of France, Ken-li-lio (Henry), traveling 
without a Chinese passport and on his own initiative, is making 
toward Lo-pou-ta-cul (Lob Nor). I order the local authorities, 
in no matter what place the French prince may be found, to pre- 






ji ykf ,^ ^^ ^ A^ 4: 
'S ^'^ Hi -f^ji -f^ 

it, jJf ^ 



f7 I'-a ^J^ -rr i. '^^ "5?; 



X- -i'^ k' :i ^^ 

-J f ;f ^ %^ 





A CHINESE WARRANT. 



vent him continuing his route and to turn him back.' In conse- 
quence of this order my duty is to send out agents to gather 
information, and I accordingly direct two agents to proceed at 
once to Kou-cul-li (Kourla), and to act in concert with the Mus- 



48 ACROSS THIBET. 

sulman chiefs of tMs locality in order to inspect the country. If 
the French prince is met, his progress must he arrested, and he 
must be prevented penetrating any further and compelled to turn 
back. The agents must not Ije guilty of negligence or delay, 
under pain of incurring penalties. This must not be disobeyed. 
Twice recommended, and his instructions are given to Tchang- 
Youy, and to A-li. They will take care to conform to them. 
The eighth day of the ninth moon of the iifteenth year of Kou- 
ang-Sin. Valid until the return, to be afterward given back 
and annulled." 

I might, with reference to this order, say a good deal as to 
the perhdy of the Chinese with regard t(3 Europeans of all kinds, 
even to Europeans who have behaved generously toward man- 
darins. But it would be a waste of space, for in the course of 
this narrative the reader will have opportunities of appreciating 
at its proper value the administration of provinces remote from 
the frontier and the coast. Thus, on the northern frontier, one 
encounters, side by side with the mandarins, Russian consuls who 
command not only respect but obedience, while on the coast 
there are consuls and persons of all nationalities who maintain 
amicable relations with the mandarins. But in the interior of 
the empire the situation is not the same. 

October 8. — The chiefs of Kourla, with the Akim at their head, 
return to see us again, and we restore to them the order. They 
repeat that we cannot continue our route. We reply that nothing 
will stop us from going to the Lob Nor, where we msh to enjoy 
the chase. When we are ready, we shall load our beasts and 
start, and if any effort is made to stop us by force there ^^^ll be 
bloodshed, and the blood will be upon their heads. We are not 
evil-doers ; we do no harm to anyone, and why should we not 
enjoy the immunities accorded to the smallest of traders ? We 
tell the Akim that this is our ultimatum, and bid him reflect. 
He hangs his head down, and, dropping the Chinese language in 
his emotion, says in his native Turkish : " I am only executing 
the orders given me. I do not msh you any harm. I can see 



BEADY FOR A START. 49 

you are not bad people. What would you have me do ? I am 
in a cruel position, for my life is at stake. Truly, I am like the 
nut between two stones ; by AUali, I am." 

And he heaves a sigh which does not seem to be assumed. 

" Help me," he went on to say. " I will go to Karachar and 
see my superior. Let one of your party come with me ; he will 
explain things, and, by the help of Allah, matters will all be 
arrano-ed." 

" It is impossible to do as you ask, Akim," I reply, " for the 
explanations are already given. We do not in any wa}^ recognize 
your sub-prefect ; and the step would be quite useless, for if one 
of us ^vere to go to Karachar, and your superior persisted in stop- 
ping us, we should start just the same." 

The chief and his companions then rose and took leave of us. 

October 9. — A fresh visit from the Akim, who insists, with a 
pretty firm air, upon our retracing our steps. Upon our cate- 
gorically refusing, he gets up, without pressing the matter any 
further, and says that he shall have to resort to force — a threat 
which makes us laugh. 

The Aksakal of the Russian subjects in Kourla then inter- 
venes, and tells us that he has been threatened with having a 
chain put round his neck and being dragged off to Karachar if 
he lends us assistance. A strong force arrives from Karachar to 
reenforce the feeble garrison of Kourla, which consisted of sixty 
soldiers, who seemed to us more or less stupefied with opium. 

We hurry on our preparations for starting. The purchases 
are completed, the saddles for the camels are se^vn, and there is 
nothing to delay us any longer. At nightfall a delegation of 
chiefs, including the Aksakal of the Russian subjects, come and 
make a formal remonstrance with us, but at last they see that we 
are firmly resolved not to let ourselves be stopped. 

After supper we let the men sleep until midnight, and then 
wake them up and give them orders to get all the loads ready, 
and not to utter a word. All the preliminaries of the start are 
.soon got through. A few hours later I get up without making 



50 ACROSS THIBET. 

the sliglitest noise, aud satisfy myself for tlie nonce that the 
soundest sleepers have sharp ears. 

October 10. — ^At daylight all our camels and horses are ready, 
well shod and well saddled. The news of our starting soon 
spreads through the town, and the caravan is organized in the 
presence of a multitude which invades our courtyard, and which 
we are ol^liged to drive out with a good stout stick. Some pick- 
pockets have managed to sneak up to our things and steal what- 
ever they can conceal about their persons. We prevent the 
recurrence of this hj ci'eating a void about us. Our attitude is 
at the same time a warning to the mandarins that we are pre- 
pared for any eventuality as yesterday. 

Having been sent to the bazaar to procure a few delicacies, 
our Chinaman returns and says that the merchants are of opinion 
that the Akim has arranged the matter very well, for he has in- 
duced us to write to Karachar. I forgot, as a matter of fact, to 
mention yesterday that we had promised to send a few lines of 
explanation to the sub-prefect of Karachar. This letter had 
been translated into Turkish and Chinese, and we stated in it 
our intention of going to shoot in the neighborhood of the Lob 
Nor, where Ave should remain long enough for all the necessary 
papers to ariive from Pekin or elsewhere. The Akim's friends 
consider that he has managed matters ver}-' adroitly, that he has 
gained a diplomatic victory ; in short, to use the language of the 
country, that "he has had the wit to preserve the face and to 
add a plume to his hat." 

The loading of the beasts of burden is completed, the presents 
have been distributed to our hosts and acquaintances, the men 
leap into the saddle, raise their hands to their beards, exclaiming 
" Allah is great ! " And so en route for the Lob Nor. 

Two of our men who are ridino; the best horses a;© on in front. 
They are told not to lose sight of the leading camel-driver, and I 
can see them both. In case of an alert they are to gallop back 
to us. Rachmed will go on ahead of all the rest, to see for him- 
self, when we get close to the gate. Now, the caravan gets into- 



LEAVING KOUBLA. 53 

motion, and proceeds slowly along the street ; the camels pack 
as close to one another as they can, and, swingmg their necks 
and rolling from side to side, they methodically glide on 
with their long legs, quite indiii'erent to the teasing of the 
Chinese, but feeling perhaps the warmth of the superb autumn 
sun. 

On such a delightful day I feel that nothing unpleasant can 
occur to us ; Natm^e is too bright and smiling for that. While 
the camels are ruminating the sweet morning grass, I am rumi- 
nating what remains to be done, and I rejoice inwardly at having 
begun the second stage of our journey, which will terminate at 
the Lob Nor. While watching the idlers posted on the roofs, 
and the women with unveiled faces who are peeping through 
the half-open doors, replying at the same time by a " salaam " to 
the " salaam " of a boy with a merry and good-humored face, and 
by a brandishing of my whip to another not so well-behaved, I 
am reminded of similar starts from similar countries, and my im- 
agination travels at a bound to Turkestan, Bokhara, and Khiva. 
I note here the same faces, the same gestures, and the same 
attitudes as there. I can perceive the same odors emitted from 
their houses, and the vast firmament over our heads is of the 
same inimitable blue, the reflection of which even the turquoise 
cannot reproduce. 

It is impossible that our journey should be rudely interrupted, 
commenced as it is in such bright sunshine ; the earth presents 
itself under too smiling an aspect to deceive us afterward. 

For a little way we skirted the crenelated walls of the town, 
against which are built various earthen huts with creepers grow- 
ing up them, and then we said good-by to Kourla and made 
southward. The road which leads out of the oasis is dusty, and 
it branches out into paths which get lost in the desert, like 
rivulets which dry up a river before it has reached the end 
of its course. 

On reaching the last of the saklis, we bought some sheep from 
a friend of the Aksakal of the Russian subjects. . Although we 



54 ACROSS THIBET. 

are certain of having enougli to feed men and beasts as far as the 
Lob NoPj it is as well to have ^vith one a small flock of fat sheep, 
as a matter of precaution ; and then, again, this will enable us to 
purchase others of the natives at a lower figure for our daily 
consumption, for when they see that we are not at their mere}', 
they will not put up their prices. 

October 11. — AVe had loaded some of our camels when we 
saw the dust rising on the plain in the direction of Kourla, 
and presently recognize the chiefs of Kourla in full dress, ac- 
companied by several horsemen. When they got close to our 
bivouac, they politely dismounted, and one of their attendants 
came to ask for an audience on the part of his masters. This 
we at once granted, and the chiefs advanced with a certain 
degree of haste, no doubt to signify thereby that they were 
under the influence of some strong emotion. They had smiling 
faces, they shook hands cordially with us, and leaned forward as 
they did so, their whole attitude being one of sympathy. They 
had no sooner seated themselves on the white felt ^vhich had been 
laid down in their honor, the younger ones remaining on their 
feet out of deference, than they hastened to tell us that they had 
come as friends, that they wished us a safe journey and good 
health. They had bjeen compelled to execute the orders sent from 
Karachar, but had done so much against their own inclinations. 
They could see very clearly that we were great personages and 
honest people. One of them invited us to believe that the 
Akim was a very good fellow ; another whispered into the ear 
of one of our men that ^ve should do well to mark our gratitude 
and forgiveness by a few little presents, such as our hosts at 
Kourla had received the day before. 

We thanked them politely and gave orders for presents to be 
handed to the chiefs, as souvenii's of om* visit, and at the same 
time asked for a guide to introduce us to the people we should 
meet on the way, and ^vho "would facilitate the passage of the 
Kutche-Darya, a river \vhich has no bridges oi' ferries, and which 
has to be crossed on a raft. 



WB OBTAIN A G UIDE. 



55 



We were at once furnished with a man of about sixty, named 
Ata E-achmed, the same who formerly accompanied Prjevalsky 







YANGI KOUL. 



in his excursion to the Lob Nor. Our interpreter, Abdullah, 
Tecoo-nized him and assured us that Rachmed was the best of 



66 ACEO>JS THIBET. 

men. Formei'ly attaclied to the person of Yakool), lie passed 
into the service of the Akim of Kourla. 

After having received our small gifts, the chiefs rose to their 
feet, wished us a safe journey once more, and pressed our hands 
very effusively ; they then mounted their horses and cantered 
back toward Kourla, while we packed up our things and 
regained our caravan, which was making its way toward the 
small village of Tchinagi. 

Such is the end of what I must style a " mandarinade," for 
this is the only name to give to the series of Avorries which the 
Chinese mandarins reserve for Europeans in order to prove to 
them that China possesses an '^ administration." I have related 
this incident too nuich in detail, perhaps ; but I believe that I 
shall have done a service to future travelers by showing that it 
is not well to be alarmed by the threats of the mandarins, and 
that one may travel pretty comfortably in this region of the 
Chinese Empire, always provided that one keeps clear of the 
large centers of population, Avhere a countless population does 
not scruple to commit acts of cowardice and ferocity with the 
certainty of escaping punishment. 

After nine or ten miles of the desert, we bivouacked near the 
village of Tchinagi,* on the banks of a canal planted ^vith 
Avillows. 

At Tchinagi, the aged Ata Rachmed got together a score of 
woebegone men, whom we promised to pay well if they would 
help us to construct our rafts on the Kutche-Darya. Among 
the number was one who had the broad face of the Kirghiz, the 
same small eyes, scanty beard, and guttural way of speaking. 
Upon being questioned he told us that he was a native of the 
neighborhood of Semipalatinsk, and that having come into the 
country in Yakoob-Beg's time, with one of his brothers, he had 
married there and settled in it. "That's like me," says our 
Russian Borodjin ; " I served at Kuldja and then at DJarkent, 
where I married, and I never returned home to Tobolsk." I 
note this trifling incident in order to point out that, on man}^ 



TCHINAGI. 57 

occasions, I have observed that the Russians and the Turks 
move from place to place very readily, and especially that they 
soon abandon all idea of returning to their native country, even 
when they have left it more or less under compulsion. To 
inhabitants of the vast and monotonous plain, with horizons as 
boundless as those of the sea, it matters little at what point of 
the ocean — for such the plain I'eally is — they may live ; all 
they want is a few birch trees, lighting up the landscape with 
their silver trunks, a rivei' full of fish, the banks of which, covered 
with reeds, give shelter to waterfo^vl and wild boars, and with 
that a few patches of cultivated ground around the small 
wooden or earthen hut. 

The inhabitants of Tchinagi, who resemble the Sarthians of 
Turkestan, say that they came fi'om Andidjan — that is to say, 
from Ferghana — about a hundred years ago. This does not 
mean anything definite, for Eastern peoj^le are incredibly negli- 
gent as to dates. 

An old man talked to us of Russians whom he had seen in the 
country, and we know, as a matter of fact, that some of the old 
believers came as far as the Lob Nor in search of land a long 
time ago. Then we listened to some singers who played upon a 
two-stringed guitar, and, as we were free in distributing tea and 
rice, a good part of the village surrounded us, our men dancing 
to the sound of the accordion, after the custom of their country, 
and the evening passing in festivity. Even our old camel-driver, 
carried away by the music, executed a rude sort of a dance with 
his feeble legs, the Chinaman being the only one who did not 
stir. Upon our asking him to give us a specimen of the dancing 
in his district, he replied : 

" Oh, we don't dance ; we amuse ourselves by sitting down 
and doing nothing." 

" And what is your music like ? " 

" Oh ! our music is very similar to that which you hear." 
And he endeavors to prove this by singing an air, but the eii'ort 
is so unmusical, despite his extreme seriousness, that we cannot 



58 ACROSS THIBET. 

help laugliing outright. It does not take miicli to amuse 
travelers. 

After having crossed a strip of desert, we soon reach a regular 
forest of poplars. But they are not the same trees as the French 
poplars ; for these grow on the sand, the bark is all wrinkled, 
and the hollow trunks are covered all over Avith Ijindw-eed. 
Their foliage varies very much, for the leaves are oblong in the 
lower branches, and resemble those of the willow, while alcove 
they are like those of the ordinary poplar. It is \vith these trees 
that we shall have to cod struct our rafts, and this ^^ill increase 
the difficulty not a little, for this Popidus cliversifolla is porous 
and dry internally, although its bai'k is extremely hard, while, if 
it remains long in the water, it sinks to the bottom. 

Upon the advice of an old man who directs the ^vork, and 
who affirms by his white beard, three rows of beams are placed 
one upon the other ; they are tied together and flanked by thick 
bundles of reeds, so as to elevate the floating line. The I'aft will 
only be put into the water at the last moment. In this con- 
juncture our Russians, accustomed to the water, like all their 
fellow-countrymen, are very useful to us. As to Rachmed, who 
has nearly been drowned on several occasions, and who has a 
horror of all kinds of ^navigation, he bemoans his fate, and im- 
plores, with a very comical face, to be allowed to retrace his 
steps, for he is sure he shall be drowned. 

October 12. — The evening is spent in getting together the 
trees which have been cut in the forest, or which have been hid- 
den away on the river banks. They have already been used for 
making rafts, and the natives di'ag them to oiu' camp with oxen. 

October 13. — The smaller bao;o;ao;e is loaded in canoes, and a 
sort of feriy is organized by means of I'afts. The I'aft is covered 
with earth to place our camels under the illusion that they are 
on terra firnia. They ai'e not at all fond of the A^'ater, and it is 
necessai'y, even, in order to get them on to the raft, to prepare a 
sort of landing-stage with stakes and fagots, for the bank is 
steep. At the first attem})t ^ve succeed in getting two camels on 



CROSSING THE KUFCHEDABTA. 59 

to the raft ; we keep tlieir heads down by pulling at the ring 
placed in their noses. The raft is pulled across by a rope, and 
when the passengers have been landed it is brought back to the 
landing-stage by means of another rope. But this time there is 
the greatest difficulty in getting a camel to advance ; persuasion, 
ruse, and blow^s are alike powerless, and at last the beast has to 
be carried. But it slips backward, its hind legs dropping into 
the water, and the rest of its body on the raft, and in this posture 
it is pulled across, like a schoolboy lolling over his desk. So we 
go on until they have all been got over, the horses as well as the 
sheep swimming across. 

This operation lasts all day, and tJie work is accomplished in 
very good humor, the Mussulmans interlarding it with the 
prayers to wdiich they are called by theii' mollah. 

The natives again speak to us of Yakoob-Beg, and it is clear 
that they regret him very much. They would like to be de- 
livered from the Chinese, who, they say, " eat dogs, and even 
children." 

By nightfall the crossing of the Kutche-Darya is completed, 
and we distribute numerous "tips" to the workmen who have 
been employed, leaving them two sheep as well. 

As the Huns and the Tartars mostly had horses, they were 
able to cross the rivers and streams pretty easily. The armies 
which possessed elephants could soon construct rafts, as these 
animals could drag trees along with their trunks, and probably 
hauled the baggage, and even people, as almost certainly hap- 
pened with Hannibal in crossing the Bli^iiio. The camel of 
Central Asia is made for a desert withouL ^\:uor, and he only 
likes rivers that he may drink greedily of tLcin. 

We make for the Lob Nor by the itinerary which Prjevalsky 
and Carey followed. At times we are obliged to diverge from 
it, as inundations have modified the aspect of the country, and 
ive prefer making a detour if we can thereby avoid constructing 
^ raft. 

October 14. — ^Our route lies through the tougrak woods, which 



60 ACROSS THIBET. 

form a variety to the violet tamarisk trees. These tougrak, or 
poplars, are burnt in many places. Flocks of sheep have been 
roaming through the woods, and traces of them are visible upon 
the saline soil, into which the foot sinks as into ashes covered 
over with a light crust. The trees are less thick on the sand- 



S2j-^£i:as:*Si, 




''mm-. 



' CANOE ON THE TAKIM. 



hills, for in this region a great many people come and go. Iil 
the afternoon we cross the Intchigue-Darya, a small river which 
forms another arm of the Tarim, but the crossing is effected by 
a bridge, which is repaii'ed to admit of the camels going over it. 
In the evening we encamp at Goumbas, near a piece of water on 
a bare hill. The natives bring us some trout, and are very well 
satisfied with the pieces of money which ^ve give them. For 
our bivouac we prefer a clearing where the breeze will rid 
us of the mosquitoes, which bite us to death even under our 
covei'ings. There is an abundance of waterfowl, ^vild geese, 
ducks, teal, and cormorants in the reed-beds. This region is ver}^ 
sparsely inhabited. 



AKTARMA. 61 

October 15. — To-day we start for Aktarma, whicli is noted on 
Prjevalsky's map. It is always the same sandy desert, which 
reminds some of ns of the Gobi in Mongolia, others of the Kara 
Koum. Like the latter, it is dotted over with nmnerous tama- 
risk trees, which have helped to consolidate the sand-hills. The 
wind and the shrub are at war with each other, the latter seek- 
ing to retain by means of its roots the moving surface of the 
desert, clutching, as it were with tentacles, little heaps of sand 
and solidifying them, while the dust whirls round and the wind 
converts it into a diminutive piece of artillery for besieging the 
fortress. The pools are very numerous, lending to the plants 
the sustenance of their moisture, and making the struggle less 
unequal. 

Coming to our first halt, we are advised to make to our right, 
in a westerly direction, and we thread our way between pools 
and pieces of water which remind one of fragments of river 
which have suddenly come to a stop, for, when the wind ruffles 
the water, one would imagine that it was flowing, but when the 
wind drops it is still. But our horizon, u]3 to the present rather 
narrow, opens out, and the plain upon which we enter is, as we 
are told, that of Koul-toukmit-Koul. We see green djiddas of a 
very respectable size, while the prickly broom waves its white 
tufts in the depression of the soil, and between the low sand- 
hills runs a fine stream of clear water glistening in the sunlight. 
This is the Tarim, which flows along, as if fatigued by its long 
journey, toward the Lob Nor. One can guess mthout much 
difficulty that a large lake, or a number of pools, will be formed, 
for this river has no outlet into the ocean. 

Marching away from the Tarim, in the afternoon we arrive at 
Aktarma, indicated in the desert by groups of poplars. A herd 
of cattle announce our approach in a very disagreeable manner, 
for they make a stampede in front of us, raising a column of 
dust. They are animals of very small stature, and exceedingly 
agile. We see men cultivating small patches of ground impreg- 
nated v^dth salt, not far from the score or so of huts which con- 



63 ACROSS THIBET. 

stitute what is one of the most important towns of the Tarim. 
These huts, made of reeds twisted into hurdles and mud, are for 
the present deserted. 

The chief of Aktarma, surrounded by his council, offers us 
some very insipid melons, and inquires after oui" health. These 
people are very frightened and suspicious, like the true savages 
they are ; they have round heads and eyes, appealing to be the 
produce of unions between the most divergent tribes, all that 
they have in common being their savage and poverty-stricken 
mien. One would imagine them to be outlaws who had come 
from all parts, and who had settled here fi'om Aveaiiness of 
wandering. They assert that they are Kalmucks by descent, 
but they speak Turkish. Abdullah, Avho ^vants to ingratiate 
himself Avith them, says that he is himself a Kalmuck, and that 
the Emir Timour was also a Kalmuck, whence it is to be con- 
cluded, judging by the tone of our interpreter, that this nation 
has possessed at least two great men — the Emir Timour, long 
since defunct, and Abdullah, our interpreter, the greediest of 
created beings, who asked them to give him some melons for his 
own consumption, and who will fall ill from eating too many of 
them. 

Octoher 16. — We halt all to-day. As the village remains 
deserted, the news of our arrival has, perhaps, frightened away 
the people of Aktarma. But it A\'ould appear tliat at this season 
the population migrates with its flocks and herds to the banks 
of the Tarim and its pools, men, Avomen, and children fishing, 
shooting, and drying fish for the winter while the cattle and 
sheep are feeding. 

Beyond the wood men are at work digging the ground with 
the same simple implement which one meets with among all 
primitive peoples, consisting of two pieces of wood. The savages 
invented it first of all for delving; into the earth and robbins; it of 
its treasui'es. Here the people grow wheat, but not enough for 
their food, and they have to go and buy more at Kourla, where 
they sell sheepskins, dried fish, and a coarse sort of cloth. Tliey 



THE TABIM. 



63 



gi'ow a little barley for tlieir horses, wliicli, tliough not nnmerous 
are sturdy and good for tlieir size. 

Octoher 17. — ^The plain across wliicli we are traveling, witli 
its gray October sky^, fomis a very typical Pomeranian landscape, 
and one might fancy one's self on the shores of the Baltic or the 
North Sea. The horizon is flat, water extends everywhere, and 
the lowlands seem to be floating on their surface, while the banks 




CKOS8ING AN ARM OP THE TAKIil AT ARKAN ON AN UIPROYI^ED RAFT. 

of the river are too low to regulate its course. It ^vould seem as 
if a mere scratch on the bank would suffice to open a way for the 
Tarim. The river is constantly overflowing, or, rather, it spreads 
out and forms pools or lakes in a hundred different spots, as 
evidenced by the name of the village of Yangi Koul (the " new 
lake "). We arrive there along a dusty road, shaded by reed-beds 
and thorns, running through ground with a good deal of salt on 
the surface, and we have to wind in and out so as to avoid the 
water. The village is perched upon the slope of a sandhill on the 



64 ACROSS THIBET. 

opposite bank, and the walls of tlie liouses, veiy irregularly built, 
look as if they were slipping down toward the river. Our arrival 
brings out tlie whole population, whicli comes to take a good look 
at us wliile we are having our tea. The women alone do not 
cross the stream, which is nearly 500 feet wide, but men and boys 
jump into the water and tuck up their clothes so as to reach the 
mole of sand which lines the course of the Tarim. The well-to- 
do, who have boots or shoes to their feet, get themselves carried 
across, or come over in canoes. They bring presents with them, 
including fish both fresh and preserved. One lad has brought a 
wild goose alive, and when, while refusing it, we make him a 
present, he shows our gift to the others, and the ice is broken. 

The natives come so close that I have time to examine them, 
and can see that they are a mixture of all races, with noses and 
eyes of all shapes and colors, as in any large town of the West. 
I detect some regular Kirghiz, thick-set, with scarcely perceptible 
eyes, salient cheek-bones, and scanty beards ; Sarthians mth finer 
figures, and black, bushy beards, while gray eyes are not rare. 
A fair man, with a very fresh complexion and light eyes, wears a 
turned-up cap on his head, and the Siberians themselves are 
struck by his resemblance to a Russian. Moreover, ^ve are told 
that the Russians have been here. 

Our presence excites the greatest curiosity, and the canoes are 
kept busy, bringing the whole of the male population ; and the 
women, clustering on the opposite bank, watch the spectacle, and 
doubtless wish that the etiquette of their sex did not prevent 
them from coming across. These people bring us some excellent 
melons and boiled fish, this meal having been prepared for us in 
a huiTy. When we eat, the crowd kneel down and watch us with 
almost reverent interest. They exchange remarks in a low tone, 
and appear very pleased to see us, but one of them remarks : 
"Had you been Chinese, we should have made off." After 
making a few presents, we encamped some distance further on, 
on high ground, which is rather dryer. 
- October 18. — We traverse Oulong-Koid, the chief of which, a 



OVLONG-KOTIL. 65 

Kirghiz by descent, accords us a hearty reception in his house 
made of withes plastered with mud. He has some furniture in 
this house, including an X in wood upon which the Koran is 
placed, a mat which he unrolls, and which serves both as cloth 
and table, cushions made out of real silk taken from the stem of 
the tchiga (asclepias), and bags made of a sort of wild hemp which 
is very abundant in this region. He drinks his tea out of Kash- 
gar cups, and he has several wives, being altogether an impor. 
tant personage. Although we declined his proffered sheep, we 
offer him in return a present, as it is always well to encourage 
generous intentions when one is traveling. 

We were able to observe here the action of the wind upon the 
sands of the Tarim : they are being slowly driven toward the 
northwest, for the prevailing wind is the southeast, though a 
wind from the southwest is said to blow occasionally. The ao-ed 
chief who gives us this information tells us that they pay a tax 
every year to the Chinese ; he acting as intermediary between the 
people and the chief at Kourla. The impost is levied upon the 
crops and the stock, a tenth of the former and a fortieth part of 
the latter. 

October 19. — The route does not vary. Whenever we quit 
the banks of the river we return to the desert, through planta- 
tations where the tougrak trees, exuding their sap, which the 
natives employ as soap, lift their contorted heads, and past 
undulating sandhills driven along by the wind, but at so slow a 
pace that the natives do not notice their advance until after many 
years. The incidents of the route are the occasional securing of 
a bird or a mammifer, which goes to enrich our collection. Game 
is fairly abundant. First it is an antelope which springs up 
within shot, and is bagged, while our Qnenu is varied by a hare or 
by some Mongolian pheasants. Then we see a wolf, at first 
mistaken for a dog, stealing through the rushes, or the fresh 
trace of a tiger, which makes us take extra precautions at night. 
We come across European birds, too, such as fieldfares and larks, 
while there is no lack of waterfowl. We have excellent camping- 



66 ACROSS THIBET. 

ground, thougli the water is often Imd, and not a day passes that 
it does not make some of onr men ill. They are forbidden to 
drink water on the road, unless it is running, and even in that 
case it is necessary to be very careful, for there are rapid flowing 
rivers which are more or less poisoned by the vegetable matter 
in their beds, and by other plants which, growing on the banks, 
die and fall in, undergoing decomposition, and sowing the genns 
of disease. 

October 20. — A strong wind from the southwest brings a 
little snow by way of warning that winter is at hand, and as we 
sit round the fires at night the conversation turns upon the lofty 
plateaux. Our interpreter, in his vanity, exaggerates the difficul- 
ties of the route, for, as he is the only person who has gone 
through a winter in these regions, he regards himself as a being 
of some special essence. In the village of Tchigali we halt in 
the hut of the chief. This villag-e received its name from the 
abundance of the tchiga (asclepias), which the natives found 
when they settled there. Wherever we go we encounter this 
plant, as well as the poplai', the tamarisk, and the Jujube tree, 
and it gives a special character to the valley of the Tarim. 

October 21. — Before entering the desert, which has to be 
crossed to get to Airiligane, we go through regular fields of 
tchiga. Of this the natives weave garments, the work being 
always executed by women. The grains of the " silk plant," as 
the asclepias of Europe is called, are surmounted by a silky 
substance as soft to the touch as the finest velvet. Cushions ai'e 
made of it, and it also makes a very soft bed for children, and 
when the dark and hard pod which contains the grain is pressed, 
these emerge all at once in the shape of a bouquet of great deli- 
cacy, as by a magician's wand. 

October 22. — The event of to-day is the visit of a chief who 
offers us presents, consisting of melons, fish, onions, and carrots. 
The carrots excite general enthusiasm, it being a long time since 
we had seen any of these excellent vegetables. 

October 23. — We are still in the desert, and can see the Tarim 



ABKAN. 67 

flowing lazily along its banks, all white witli salt. We kill an 
enormous wild boar and some gazelles. The day is a magnif- 
icent one, after a minimum of 16° of frost at night, whereas 
during the day the temperature rises to 83° in the shade. The 
sky is overcast, and with the aspect of autumn we have the 
warmth of spring. 

October 24. — Once more w^e are on the banks of one of the 
branches of the Tarim, and have no difficulty in constructiug 
two rafts, one with a treble row of trunks of trees, the other 
with canoes brought us by the natives, who are more wretched- 
looking than those who live higher up the river, more suspicious, 
and more savage. They are amused and alarmed at a mere 
nothing, and even our camels inspne them with such terror 
that they will not go near them. 

The men of Arkan (this being the name of the place) are 
poor ^^Tetches all in rags, dressed in pieces of coarse cloth, and 
fi'agments of a wadded coat, having on their feet abascas, boots 
without any heels, or strips of stuff wound round their legs. 
They are of a very marked type, being small, dark, very agile, 
shomng little muscle, with skinny legs, and the calf high up 
toward the knee. They have broad faces, salient cheek-bones, 
and small round eyes of a dark color, while one is struck by the 
long nose, coming down to a chin ending in a very scanty beard. 
Then cheeks are hollowed as if by hunger, and their mouths are 
very large, with the corners puckered down, and with thick over- 
lapping lips. Their necks are long and thin like those of the 
cormorants, which they resemble in the sense that they are 
in search of food from the hour of their bii^th. Their teeth, 
as a rule, are yellow, decayed, short, and worn sideways from 
gnawing at dried meat and munching grain. They are much 
amused at seeing us sneeze when we take some yellow snuff 
which they are constantly thrusting up their nostrils. 

Savage and devoid of intelligence as they look, they have their 
code of honor. The Doungane camel-driver abuses them because 
they have pushed one of the camels into the water by theii' 



68 ACROSS THIBET. 

awkward movements, so tliey steer clear of him, heap curses on 
his head, and intimate their intention of going away. They mil 
not do anything for him, and we are compelled to intervene and 
explain that he is only hii'ed by us, and that in reality it is for 
us that they are working. So they set to work again, but only 
on condition that the Doungane keeps away from them. 

It so happens that this morning, by way of punishing them for 
some careless act, Parpa had taken a stick and beaten some of 
them, whereupon, instead of being angry, they had offered ex- 
cuses and had promised to behave better. I asked one of their 
graybeards the meaning of this. 

" Why do you say nothing to Parpa and get angry with the 
Doungane ? " 

" Parpa is a Mussulman, a sunni, like ourselves." 

" But the Doungane is a sunni too." 

" We do not believe it, for he wears a pigtail like a Chinese ; 
he speaks their language, and knows nothing of ours, except 
insults. Whereas Parpa is one of our acquaintances, he speaks 
our language and does not insult our mothers or the tombs of our 
fathers. He beat the men who made such a stupid blunder, and 
he was quite right. He is not a Chinese with hair falling down 
his back, and, besides, blows are not like the w^ords which pro- 
ceed from an evil heart." 

As a matter of fact, the stick is used for chastisement in these 
Eastern countries, and there is nothing ignominious in the 
injuries which it inflicts. Insults, on the other hand — and I mean 
thereby the curses upon relatives, ancestors, and tombs, uttered 
with the object of dishonoring the person at whom they are 
leveled — are rarely forgiven. 

Octoher 26. — Having got the whole of the caravan across, we 
encamp to-day in a wood at Talkitchin, a name ^vhich signifies 
" the small poplai' " in the dialect of the coimtry. The scenery 
is much the same, and directly one leaves the banks of the river 
one is in the desei't ^vith the tamarisk tree, the tchiga, and tufts 
of reeds growling in its salt soil. 



BOUOON BACHI. 69 

As I Avalk throngli the wood I observe that if it lias been 
able to resist the desert it lias not escaped the effects of time, 
for the leaves have been stripped from the trees earlier than 
they would have been if there had been much vigor in them, 
and the branches of the poplars are much twisted and bent. 
The trunks are either split or are devoid of bark, the ground 
is strewed with dead branches, and the roots, laid bare to the 
air, seem to have no hold in the ground. Seen from a distant 
elevation, these trees present the forlorn aspect of an abandoned 
vineyard, and the meager trunks, devoid of a single branch, rear 
their heads like the poles in a hop field which has beeu allowed 
to go out of cultivation. The effect of all I see around me is to 
depress the imagination, the sand being so slippery that the 
footprints made in it are effaced in a moment ; there is no sign 
of life, and the pale sun goes down in a gray sky which it 
scarcely tinges with gold, while the silence is so complete that 
one can almost hear one's arteries beating. 

The old Kirghiz Imatch indulges in some very comical reflec- 
tions about the camels, of which he is very fond, as, indeed, 
he is of all animals, taking care that the horses and dogs are not 
left without food. His only failing is that he has a very coarse 
tongue, and a boundless store of rich invective. He points out 
to me that the kouirouk (tail) of the sheep is not so thick as in 
the Hi, this being a proof that the pasturage is poor. There 
is nothing better than the fat of the sheep's tail. 

October 27. — After a march through the sand, we encamp a 
little way beyond the ruined fortress constructed by Yakoob- 
Beg, and the four walls, still standing, serve as a refuge in bad 
weather. The spot where we encamp is called Bougon-Bachi, 
Bougon being the name given to the stags, ^vhich are pretty 
numerous in this country, while " Bachi " means head, the Tarim 
making a sharp bend, w^hich is very like the head of a stag 
surmounted by his two horns. 

Octoher 28. — We direct our steps southward, delighted at 
the thought of entering the region of Lob. As we advance the 



70 ACROSS THIBET. 

aspect of tlie country changes, tlie vegetation becoming rarer, 
while the trees have disappeared ; the shrul^s and plants are 
scantier, the hillocks further apart, and are frequently separated 
by the smooth surface of the takirs. There are traces of evapo- 
ration everywhere. 

We take a south-south-westerly direction, ^vith the Avind at 
our backs. Quitting the banks of" the Tarim for good, the desert 
becomes more and more in keeping with its name. All of a 
sudden we can see the glistening of water, a large sheet of which 
extends to our left, forming numerous creeks. Overhead thou- 
sands of birds are flying in clouds, while others allow themselves 
to be carried along the surface of the water by the wind, but at 
a considerable distance from the low banks, which are bare, 
coated with salt, and devoid of the thick belt of reeds which is 
to be found on most lakes. Further on is another sheet of water, 
and when we ascend a hillock we can distinguish an endless chain 
of them, with their sandhills, salt-coated shores, and water- 
fowl. 

One of the guides says this region is the Lob, another that it 
is Kara-Bourane ; but in reality it is called the " Black Tempest,'' 
to the extreme west of the Lob. 

The stream whiclf runs in a current through this stagnant 
water is the Tcherchene-Darya, which comes down from the high 
table-lands to the north. It is not so broad as the Tarim, and a 
very modest-sized bridge enables us to cross it, and to encamp 
in the island formed by it, the grass being good for the horses 
and camels. 

The village of Lob is not far off, and the inhabitants come to 
pay us a visit. These starved and feeble-looking people offer us 
for sale smoked fish and duck, which they have snai*ed, and a few 
presents soon make them friendly. They tell us that Petzoff, the 
Russian traveler, is expected shortly, and the Chinese have 
spread the report that smallpox is raging in the region of the 
Tchei'chene, so that the inhabitants of Tchai'kalik have made up 
their minds to take flight before the Russians arrive. In this 



TCHABKALIK. 



71 



country smallpox terrifies tlie population, causing tliem to dis- 
perse in all directions, and even to abandon tlie sick. 

October 29. — After having slowly steered our way tlirougli 
tlie marslies we again see the bare plain in the desert. To the 



^*>\*v 







\1 




A NATIVE OF LOB. 



south we can distinguish a tall peak rising out of the mist, like 
an island in the sky, and the guide, pointing to it with his whip, 
says, " Altin Tagh, the mountain of gold." It is the first of the 



72 AGJiOSS THIBET. 

mountain walls wliicli bar access to the liigli table-lands ; and as 
we are looking at it it vanishes like a dream. 

We trot along a narrow, rough path, hewn, so to speak, out of 
the soil, wherein the feet of men and beasts have Avorked a series 
of holes some distance apart. The path gets smoother, and at 
last we enter a tamarisk wood, while the poplars are still green 
and the air warm as in spring when we enter the oasis of 
Tcharkalik. Here there is abundance of irrigation, and the fields 
are well cultivated. There are peach and apricot trees, and even 
vines Avith hedgerows inclosing the fields, and the presence of 
huts and cottages reminds one a little of the gardens outside 
large cities like Marseilles. 

We are very Avell received by the elders of the village of Tchar- 
kalik, who bring us a profusion of melons, peaches, and grapes, 
and have some cakes of new bread baked for us ; and in our 
delight at having reached the end of our second main stage we 
sacrifice a whole hecatomb of these good things. 



CHAPTER IV. 

AlSr EXCUESION TO LOB WOE. 

(by prince HBNET op ORLEANS.) 

A Region of Salt — On the Tarim Again — Abdnllali : the Place and the Man — Residence 
of the Chief — His Family — ^Wild Camels — Lost in the Darkness — More About Wild 
Camels — Waterfowl — An Exchange — Disappearance of a Lake — Down the Tarim in 
Canoes — Youtchap Khan — Another Native Type — Kamchap Khan — Straddling a 
River at Its Mouth — At Eutin — Ichthyophagists — A Native Legend — Probable Causes 
of the Drying up of the Lake — Native Customs — Another Abdullah — Festivities — 
Back to the First Abdullah— Tchai — A Couple of Good Shots — A Moonlight March — 
Tcharkalik Once More. 

We had already been four days at Tcharkalik, and were not 
nearly ready to start, having to engage men of the district in 
place of our Russians who were returning home, to get in pro- 
visions for the winter, to mend clothes, and to make covering for 
protecting the feet from the cold. All this takes time, and as 
Bonvalot had promised to see after this. Father Dedeken and 
myself, who could be of no service at Tcharkalik, availed our- 
selves of the compulsory halt of the caravan to explore the Lob 
Nor, starting on the 3d of November. 

Our horses had already traveled more than 600 miles since we 
left Djarkent, and as we have still to tax their powers a great 
deal, we left them to rest at Tcharkalik. Riding some animals 
which we hired there, thick-set ponies, with deep chests, short 
and heavy necks, and small heads, and that seemed able to stand 
plenty of work, we found it as much as we could do to hold 
them at the start. Abdullah, who takes the attention which 
these stallion ponies bestow on the mare he is riding as meant 
for himself, casts a patronizing look at the natives who have 
come to see us off. He is in his element going to the Lob Nor, 
and thinks that he will be able to do as he likes with us, and 
keep us well away from the villages, while he remaius thei'e 

73 



74 ACROSS THIBET. 

eating, smoking, and flirting with, tlie young ladies of tlie place. 
A smile of self-satisfaction plays over his face as he abandons 
himself to his reveries. In front of him Father Dedeken and 
Barachdin, both keen for the chase, are discounting their coming 
triumphs, while behind them Couzuinetzoif, bent double, has as 
much as he can do to keep his i^ony in order, and, when he can 
find a quiet moment, wipes his spectacles, and hopes that we 
shall not kill too many birds foi' him to stuff. 

A little way behind us come half a dozen small donkeys, 
accompanied by two Mussulmans from Tcharkalik, and carrying 
some provisions and our beds, which consist of a piece of felt 
and a coverlet. Abdullah declares that we shall find very good 
houses, and that it is useless to encumber ourselves with a tent. 
We have also two small barrels of water and a little dry wood. 

When we left the encampment at 9 a. m. the weather was cold, 
but there was no wind or cloud. Still the sky was overcast, 
having that iron-gray tint which I have often noticed on the 
Terai in Nepaul, and which is caused by a mist intercepting a 
portion of the light. 

M. Bonvalot came a little waj' with us through the oasis of 
Tcharkalik, as far as the limit of the desert. The arrangement 
was that if we found tlie shooting in the Lob Nor anything out 
of the common we were to let him knoAv and he -would join us. 
If not, we were to rejoin him in a]:>out a week. 

As far as a small hillock Avhere we took tea when coming 
from Lob, the road is the one over which we have already 
traveled, and we then turn to the right, that is, to the northeast. 
All day we go through the desert, mth nothing but sand in 
^dew, in some places level and smooth as a carpet, in others 
wrinkled and raised into rido-es which are close too:ether like so 
many petrified waves. Sometimes, too, we notice small cavities 
in the soil, which are half full of saline crystallizations. These 
are geodes forming under our very eyes, and it is })robably to all 
this salt that are due the mirages ^^'hich are constantly tantalizing 
Tis in this arid region, where the passage of the caravans has 



EMIGRANTS FROM THE LOB NOR. 75 

-traced a rougli sort of road whidi lias l^een hardened by the 
drought, and which winds along in the distance like a furrow 
traced by the hand of man. One might imagine one's self to be 
transported into the scenery of the moon, and we really begin to 
forget where we are. Our march soon becomes horribly monot- 
onous, and we cease singing and even talking, the solitude being 
quite contagious, and the general silence is only broken by the 
footfall of the horses when they are crossing dried-up ponds and 
their hoofs break through the crust. We are only aroused from 
our reveries by meeting with a caravan, and when we shake oft' 
our torpor we have the same feeling of returning to the reality 
which is experienced by the sleeper who wakes up with a 
start. 

From time to time we pass emigrants from the Lob Nor who 
are going to spend the winter at Tcharkalik, Avith their luggage, 
their dwellings, and their furniture loaded on the backs of a few 
donkeys, and of their wives. In the midst of one of these con- 
voys I am particularly struck by one family. The woman has a 
piece of felt on her back, with a gun slung across her shoulders, 
and she is driving the donkey along with a stick, while the hus- 
band follows quietly nursing a child in his arms. He does not 
seem to be the least astonished at meeting us, and continues his 
journey without even looking round; he would not be a whit 
more surprised if death were to overtake him, for he is a Mussul- 
man and knows that " it is written." 

Despite the sameness of the route, time passes quickly, and 
we have to think about encamping. We calculate that we 
have come about twenty-five miles, and though we are still in the 
midst of the desert our guides are not in the least at a loss to 
fasten up our horses, after having unloaded them. They make 
small holes in the ground and put the halters into them, then 
filling these holes up with sand and treading them down. This 
mode of fastening horses offers much more resistance than one 
might be inclined to think. Having spread out our pieces of 
ielt, we light the dry wood we have brought with us, and our 



76 ACROSS THIBET. 

frugal meal of caverclak,* washed clown with, tea, is soon over. 
It is not long before we roll ourselves up in our rugs, and with 
the desert for a mattress, the sky for a ceiling, and the moon foi- 
a night-light, we ask for nothing better, especially as we are vei-}' 
sleepy. 

Novemher 4. — We are awoke at break of day by a deep mui'- 
mur over our heads. It is a rhythmical sound, similar to that pro- 
duced by the paddles of a steamer as they strike the water, and 
it is produced b}^ flocks of birds which are flying southward. 
The season is advancing, and it is time for them to get away 
from the cold. 

And very cold it is, the thei'mometer marking only five degrees 
above zero, and, being anxious to start so as to re-establish oui* 
circulation, we do not lose much time in folding up our beds, 
preparing our tea, and loading our donkeys. Some Avild geese 
that had got left behind are standing in long rows upon the sand, 
and seen from the distance they look gigantic, and give the idea 
of troops drawn up in battle array. We, no doubt, present a still 
more formidable appearance to them, for as soon as they catch 
sight of us they utter the most discordant cries and fly away, 
forming in the air immense triangles wdth the apex in front. 

The sun bursts out, at last, and though rather behind time he 
makes up for this by presenting a quite unlooked-for spectacle. 
The ground is covered with the seeds of reed grass carried hither 
by the wdnd, and this seed, white and silky, sparkles like an infiji- 
ity of small stars in the horizontal rays. It seems as if the desert 
was ashamed of its horrible nudity, and that, in order to con- 
ceal it from our sight, it had borrowed from the star of day its 
rarest jewels and its most dazzling stones. Besides the brilliant 
diamonds, large round sapphires of a deep and splendid blue are 
represented by small circular pools, which owe their somber tints- 
to the saltness of the water. These pools of water indicate the 
vicinity of a river, and it is not long before ^ve regain the course 
of the Tarim, which is fifty feet broad, A\ith a limpid l3ut shal- 

* Caverdak is meat cut up into very small pieces and fried in the pan. 



VILLAGE OF ABDULLAH. 11 

low current, flowing slowly between two sandy banks, wMcli are 
covered in places with reeds. 

Its course will guide us in future along our route, for we follow 
it pretty closely, putting to flight now and again herds of gazelles 
ivhich have come to drink of its waters, but they are very wild, 
and we do not succeed in bringing any down. 

But the sun is rapidly sinking beneath the horizon, and we 
see no trace of dwellings. The thirty versts, which, as the guide 
told us this morning, separated us from the village of Abdullah, 
seem to us very long ones ; we have covered, indeed, quite double 
the distance, and it is night when we reach four or five wretched 
reed hovels. Can this be the village of Abdullah ? Where are 
the houses built of stone, or, at all events, of earth, which he told 
us about ? Where, too, are the trees, the wood of which was to 
have given us warmth ? and why should he have dissuaded us 
from bringing our tents ? 

These are c|uestions which we should have liked to put to 
Abdullah, but it is cold and late, and all that we can do is to 
content ourselves with what we have got, and settle ourselves 
as comfortably as possible, taking care to be on our guard in 
future against the information supplied by our interpreter. 
While our people are unloading the horses and donkeys, 
the natives emerge from their miserable hovels, and with 
many "salaams" and "alcons" beg us to accept their hospi- 
tality. 

We enter one of these huts, the earthen floor of which is 
covered in places with old bits of felt, while in the center a 
cavity surrounded by flat stones serves as a fireplace. In the 
corner are sacks of corn and an old cartridge box, the latter be- 
ing a souvenir of Prjevalsky's visit. This is all the furniture, 
and on the walls, constructed of reeds, are hung long guns with 
powder flasks, so the inmates are evidently given to shooting. 
The ceiling is made out of the branches of trees brought from 
Tcharkalik, the interstices being filled uj^ with osiers, and a 
space is often left over the hearth to let the smoke escape. Bits 



78 ACROSS THIBET. 

of cloth are stretclied from one beam to another to prevent the- 
droppings from the swallows' nests from falling on to the ground. 
These ])irds are held in great respect. 

This is the residence of a chief, and having inspected the 
house I proceed to examine the figures of oui' hosts, lighted up 
by the fire made of the reeds and dry brushwood. In the fore- 
ground, close to the hearth, crouches a little old man, very bent 
and wrinkled. He resembles some of the Tarautchis that we 
saw at Kourla. With a more or less automatic motion of his 
lower jaw", he raises his white beard to the level of his hooked 
nose, this movement being all the easier because he has no teeth. 
This is Abdu Keremata, who might be any age between 95 and 
105, and as he is the chief of the family, the haha, he is, as such, 
held in great respect. 

Around him ai'e his sons, the youngest of whom is at least 
forty. They are all devoted to the chase — tall men, clad in 
sheepskins tied round the waist with a belt, with a fm* cap on 
their head, and wearing sandals made of the skin of donkeys or 
wild camels. Their features show that they are not of pure 
blood, the forehead being narrow and the eyes more or less 
elongated, but not raised at the corners, as is the case with the 
yellow race. As a rmle, they scarcely open their eyelids ; the 
nose is large, and, usually, rather hooked, the lips thick and in- 
clined to turn up, and the haii' coarse and scanty. Such are 
their general characteristics, to which I may add one peculiarity 
which I noticed everywhere in the Lob Nor. The people get 
wrinkled from their early youth, and their faces show signs of 
this all over — on the forehead, round the eyes, under the cheeks, 
and at the corners of the mouth — this producing an air of pre- 
mature age and of grimacing which makes men, ^vho are, taking 
them altogether, rather handsome, appear very ugly. The 
family of Abdu Keremata invite us to come round the fii'e ; the}' 
pour us out tea and luring us the best bits of mutton — that is, 
the breast and the loin. Om* hosts keep complete silence, only 
a word here and there being exchanged in an undertone while 



RESIDENCE OF A CHIEF. 



79 



we are eating. In the next room women are rocking cradles to 
a tune whidi produces tlie dull sound of a pestle being worked 
in a mortar, while at a respectful distance from the hearth 
children nearly naked look from us to their fathers, and keep 
quite silent out of timidity. 

" Allah-Akbar ! " exclaims Abdullah, passing his hands through 
his beard, while the guests express their satisfaction by some 




»\^Vi 



Juf 







VILLAGE OF ABDULLAH. 



incongruous sounds. The meal being finished, it is time to talk, 
and there is a piece of good news for us, for some animals have 
just been eaten by a tiger, so perhaps we may have a chance 
of tracking him. 

With regard to the wild camels, our hosts have killed four in 
the last two years, but they have cut up their skins. In telling 
us this, they guess that we should want them whole, with the 
head and the feet. The only Europeans who have come here 
before wanted them like this, so they suppose that '' the people 



80 ACROSS THIBET. 

of the West attacli great importance to these skins; perhaps 
they extract valuable remedies from them." 

Whatever may be their object, travelers never come to the 
Lob Nor without inquiring about the wild camels. One of the 
men present provided Prjevalsky with some. The tariff has 
always been sixty rubles and an article of European manu- 
facture for a complete skin. But we spoil the market at the 
risk of incurring the displeasure of those who come after us. 
We are pressed for time, the wild camels are only to be found 
some way to the east, and a fortnight is soon gone ; so we 
promise seventy rubles for each skin, and promise the men a 
gratuity even if they do not kill any. Abdullah goes bail for 
us, and in doing so incurs little risk, as he does not intend to 
return to the Lob Nor sooner than he can help. 

November 5. — A¥e are in the saddle before sunrise, following 
for another four miles the Tarim, which runs between high 
banks, and haltino; ao;ain at a fresh villas^e with five or six reed 
huts similar to the one we have just left. This, again, is an 
Abdullah, and all that it has more than the first is a pole, to 
which we fasten our horses, on the "public square." Hospi- 
tality is offered us by a native about forty years old, with a 
straight, big nose, thiek but not protruding lips, and a very 
wrinkled skin. He has a very genial face, and breathes an aii' 
of jollity which is quite communicative. This is Kunchi Kan 
Bey, whose portrait has already been dra^^ii by Prjevalsky, who 
was his guest for more than a month. Like Abdu Keremata, 
he is the head of a family of hunters, and he promises to do 
what he can to procure us the skin of a wild camel ; and when 
he hears our proposals he induces five of his men to get ready 
for a start into the desert. Other natives are lono:ino; to o-et on 
to the track of the tiger referred to above. 

While Abdullah was interpreting our promises, garnished with 
some of his own inventions. Father Dedeken went up to two 
Mongolian yourtes (tents), close to which five camels were 
picketed. These tents were inhabited by five very dirty lamas, 



LOST IN THE DARKNESS. 81 

wlio were preceding tlie Khan of the Kalmucks on his return 
from Lhassa. As we know that they have just traversed the 
highlands of Thibet, upon which we are about to enter, they 
may perhaps be able to give us some useful information. Father 
Dedeken accordingly calls out to them in Chinese, " Amour sen. 
Amour sen bene."^* Come and take tea with us." They under- 
stand perfectly what is said to them, and accept the invitation 
with pleasure. The pleasure, however, is scarcely reciprocal, for 
they smell atrociously. Nor do they seem to understand this, as, 
the more I sheer oft' from them, the closer they come up to me. 
We feel that it will not do to be too particular, but we are 
poorly rewarded for our courage, as, while they drink our tea 
very readily, they will not tell us anything worth knowing, doing 
all they can do to deter us from going on. 

The rest of the day is employed in shooting in the vicinity. 
The waterfowl are pretty numerous, and they keep to small 
pools, which, as a rule, are circular, and are surrounded by a belt 
of reeds fifteen or twenty feet high, forming a regular forest ; the 
ground is marshy, covered in some places with rushes, which 
make the walking very bad. When one has got through these 
on to the bank, it is easy to have a double shot, but the birds all 
get up, and it is necessary to walk round the pond and go to the 
other side, or else pass on to the next. This is very fatiguing work, 
and so we soon return, after having seen a great deal of game 
but no great variety of species. This is not the time of year 
when there is a great passage of birds, and, as we have not 
enough cartridges to amuse ourselves by making a big bag, we 
must only kill what we require for our collections or for food. 

On returning to Abdullah, I utilized the few remaining hours 
of daylight to get on my pony and ride back over yesterday's 
route, in the hope of seeing some more gazelles. I did not see a 
single one, but I was so absorbed in looking about for them that 
I let night overtake me. In these regions it comes all of a sud- 
den, without any twilight. With a carelessness without excuse 

* " Good health," in Mongolian. 



82 AGEOSS THIBET. 

in such a case, I had forgotten my compass. Only one resoui'ce 
was left to me. and that answered. I let the reins drop on my 
horse's neck, and he, after sniffing for a moment, set oft' without 
hesitation at a slow trot, and took me straight to the village, which 
I could not distinguish until I was within a hundred yards of it. 
This nocturnal ride gave me an appetite, and I did justice to 
the meal which Kunchi Kan Bey and his sons shared with us, 
for our host had offered us a sheep, a Tcharktilik melon, and ten 
small sandwiches similar to those made in Russia, and called 
pirochki. The secret of making them was taught his wife by a 
Russian Cossack, and, whatever may have been the motive which 
actuated him, we bless this unknown philanthropist and quaft' a 
cup of tea to his health. During our dinner, a woman prepares 
in the same room a dish of Chinese macaroni. She is not good- 
looking, being of the same type as the men, but her headdi^ess 
gives her a more civilized air, while, after the fashion of the 
Russian peasants, she covers with a ficliu, tied under the chin, her 
coarse, black hair. One mio:ht imao;ine that she was conscious of 
her ugliness, for she talked very little and did not take her food 
at the same time as the men, who have not the slightest notion of 
gallantry. The children are prettiei' than theii* mother, not being 
yet wrinkled, and there are some fine types among them ; they 
are all nearly naked, and seem to be in excellent health. After 
they have had a good look at us, they withdraw into an adjoining 
room, followed by the women, who leave us alone with their 
husbands. The latter, having made a hearty meal, are in a good 
humor and ready to reply to the questions we put to them con- 
cerning their mode of life, their habits, and their pursuit of game. 
Wild camel, we are told, begin to be found six days to the north 
of Abdullah. In the summer they go up into the mountains, 
but they always return to the same spots, there being certain 
cantonments to which they are accustomed. They go about in 
troops, one male to fifteen or sixteen females, but it is only after 
terrific combats that the former becomes the undisputed lord of 
his harem. The females have two young in three years, and the 




,11, "'1,1,, 'w^' Ai^r ,; ;ii»g%»c^ 



AVOMEN OF ABDULLAH AND NATIVES OF THE LUP. XOK. 



WILD CAMELS. 85 

male ]3rotects tliem until they are old enoiigli to do without their 
mother's milk. It is very fatiguing and difficult to get near 
them, the only way for the hunter being to hide near the pond on 
the brink of which he has found their traces. He must be a very 
good shot, for having only a single-barreled gun he cannot get 
a second shot, and if the camel is only wounded it will make off 
with its companions and he mil never get near it again. The 
best season for this sport is the winter, for the water is nearly 
everywhere frozen over, so that the places where the camels 
come to drink are very few, and you are pretty sure of finding them. 

As to whether these camels have always been wild or are 
descended from domesticated ones, our hosts assured us that they 
had always been wild. " Our forefathers and tradition," they 
said, "represent them as being so. Moreover, a domesticated 
camel cannot do without man, but comes after him. Every do- 
mestic animal has a wild antecedent, but only in some secluded 
spot. The camel must have one like other animals.* 

"When the chase has been successful it is very profitable, as 
the camel's skin is in great demand for boots, while the hair of 
the younger animals is fine and silky, that of the older camels 
being close, and making very good cloth. But only rich people 
like Kunchi Khan can organize these expeditions, as it is neces- 
sary to send several men on in advance, forward provisions, 
furnish animals for transporting them which sometimes die, and 
altoo;ether considerable risk has to be incurred." 

It is much easier and less dangerous to capture the waterfowl. 
Snares are set among the reeds, and during the season a single 
native in the course of a single night will take as many as fifteen 

* The reader is probably aware that the wild camel is spoken of as far back as the 
fifteenth century in the deserts of Central Asia, and that the fact of its existence has 
been confirmed in the last fifty years, but has also been definitely proved since Prjevalsky 
brought back some skins of that animal, which is rather smaller than the domesticated 
kind, with thinner limbs and no callosities at the knees. These characteristics are not 
distinctive. The question as to whether the wild camel is the parent stock of the do- 
mesticated one, or whether, upon the contrary, he descends from some tame camel, as 
has happened in Spain, and more recently in Guyana, is not yet settled, nor is it likely to 
be yet a while. 



86 ACROSS THIBET. 

ducks. ^' The swans are more profitable than the ducks, coverlets 
and even clothing being made with their down. They are taken 
with snares, while in the winter they are decoyed by means of 
fish. 

The chase and fishing form the staple industry of the inhabi- 
tants of Abdullah. They use nets similar to seines, and when 
the fish have been caught they are split in two, cleaned out, and 
then dried for use in winter. There are three varieties of fish, 
the most abundant of which has a thin and yellow skin like 
that of the tench, with a round mouth set off by appendages 
on each side. They are rarely more than twenty-two inches 
long. 

The natives of Abdallah also eke out their livelihood by the 
rearing of stock, which they possess in large numbers. They do 
not till the ground, but they own some fields at Tcharkalik, 
which workmen cultivate for them, and they pay them in kind 
Avith a part of the crop and a few sheep. Altogether, the people 
of Abdullah are regarded as rich, and they are under the imme- 
diate protection of the Chinese — that is to say, the authorities of 
Turf an, to which they are attached, levy on them a tax which is 
e(]^uivalent to one ruble per horse, forty copecks per cow or ox, 
two rubles per hundred sheep, and nine skins of seals for the 
headdress of the mandarins. In return for this, the Celestial 
Empire declares them to be its well-beloved children. But 
although they are Chinese subjects they have not the character- 
istics of their masters, being less proud and more simple than the 
sons of Heaven. Befoi'e quitting us for the night, they show 

* The swallows arrive at Abdiillali in April, and leave again in September. A 
species of red duck, called here Turfau (in Chinese, Olioumi cMzen, red beak), arrives in 
large numbers in February, and leaves in July. The geese arrive from the 20th to 38th 
February, remaining till the middle of March, and then going to Siberia. They return 
from September to October, remaining a month, and then going southward. The swans 
arrive from the south at the end of July, remain throughout September, and then return 
south. They do not nest at the Lob Nor, because of the mosquitoes, according to the 
natives. The other ducks arrive toward the end of .January, some remaining onlv ten 
days, but those which stay longer build their nests, like the puffins, the gulls, the herons, 
and other birds sedentary in the Lob Nor. 



DISAPPEARANCE OF A LAKE. 87 

US in a very amusing way how preferable common sense is 
to conceited knowledge. In this instance common sense is 
represented by Kunchi Khan Bey, and instruction by Abdullah, 
who is a savant by comparison, as he can speak four languages, 
and has a great opinion of himself. The former shows a stereo- 
scope and a musical box which Prjevalsky gave him. Abdullah 
thinks that if he were to send these two articles back by the, 
Russians to his family at Djarkent, he would dazzle his com- 
patriots, and appear a great man in their eyes, while Kunchi 
Khan Bey says to himself that if he had Abdullah's wadded 
coverlet he should be very warm in the winter. The exchange 
is accordingly made, each thinking that he has got the best of 
the bargain. I know which of the two really has, and I shall 
ask our " intelligent " interpreter, later on, if he thinks that 
Kunchi Khan Bey is nice and warm. 

November 6. — We are anxious to get away to the Lob Nor and 
see the immense lake, the beginning of which we noticed near the 
village of Lob, and the surface of which, according to Abdullah, 
is dark with myriads of waterfowl. 

" But," say the natives, " you are at the Lob Nor." 

" What do you mean ? Where then is the great lake ? " 

" There is no great lake." 

" Then what becomes of the Tarim ? " 

" It gradually dwindles away, and finally disappears." 

" But Prjevalsky saw a lake which he compared to a small 
sea. 

" No doubt, but since the Russian general came here thirteen 
years ago the water has run off, and the largest liquid surface is 
that which yon saw near Lob. Besides, there are no longer any- 
thing but small pools." 

" Thank you. We are quite ready to believe you, but we 
should like to see for ourselves what the state of things is, and we 
jDropose to go down the Tarim a little way." 

In order to carry out this project, all we have to do is to em- 
bark, mth our beds and a few provisions, on two large canoes 



88 ACEOSS THIBET. 

hewn out of tlie trunk of a tree. These canoes are about twenty 
feet by three, and they hold four men, including two natives, one 
in the bow and the other in the stern, who use theii' paddles 
much after the fashion of the Venetian gondoliers. These boats 
are light and not very steady, so the wary Abdullah suggests that 
we should follow the example of Prjevalsky, and tie them t<j- 
gether, but we did not follow his advice, time being short. The 
weather is fine, we have a light westerly breeze in the poop, and 
so we make rapid headway down stream, upon both banks of 
which are low hillocks of sand, with a few stunted tamarisk trees 
growing on them. The Tarim is from twenty-two to twenty-five 
feet broad, dividing at places into two branches and forming an 
eyot, upon one of which we halt for a little, and are overtaken 
by boats that have come from Lob loaded with provisions for 
the winter. 

A few miles further on we come to Youtchap Khan, as four or 
five reed huts erected under a sandy hillock are called, the village 
having a small canal which was cut about fifteen years ago to let 
off the overflow of water. 

At Youtchap Khan we make a fresh halt, to oblige Abdullah, 
who is not very fond of this sort of navigation, and the whole 
population comes out* to have a look at us. The men are like 
those at Abdullah, but the women are even uglier, having snub 
noses, prominent cheek-bones, eyes almost on the level with the 
face, and large mouths some distance from the extremity of the 
nose, being altogether very much of the Mongolian type. Men 
and women receive us in very friendly fashion, and allow us to 
inspect their dwellings, and to photograph their implements, 
which are simple and few in number. The guns are the same 
as those we have seen before, Avith a single barrel, which is long, 
and has an iron prong attached to it. Spending most of their 
time in the chase, they breed a few sheep like the people at 
Abdullah, and make use of their wool, which they comb out by 
stretching it upon a rope fastened to a wooden handle, and mak- 
ing the rope vibrate by means of a sort of mallet. When they 



KAMOIIAP KHAN. 89 

have got tlie wool to the required degree of fineness they roll it 
on to a spinning-wheel, formed by two parallel indentated wheels, 
the points of which are fastened together with pieces of string. 
Besides wool, they use for their clothing the bark of a variety of 
wild hemp (tchiga), which they root up with a hoe made of a 
triangular piece of iron, with a cane as the stick. They cut 
their wood with a primitive sort of hatchet, which consists of a 
fragment of iron fixed on to the extremity of a piece of bent 
wood. The corn is ground between two flat stones, each fastened 
in the middle to a piece of wood. They use pumpkins instead 
of gourds, while the skins of antelopes, with the hair taken off, 
dried and scraped, are cut into long strips for making fishing- 
nets. Adding to these few articles of prime necessity a horse's 
tail for driving away the flies, and a reed mat which answers the 
purpose of a napkin, an exact idea may be formed of what is to 
be found in their dwellings. 

Keturning to our boats, we continue the descent of the Tarim, 
the sandbanks of which continue as far as Kamchap Khan (" Dug 
out from the Sand "), which is another collection of reed hovels. 
The inhabitants seem even more woebegone than the people 
already described, with nothing but a few pieces of ragged felt to 
barely cover them, while their enormous sheepskin caps, the wool 
of which is mixed up with their unkempt hair, make their phys- 
iognomy seem all the more savage. Yet, beneath this repulsive 
exterior, we find them very amiable and friendly. They are nine 
families in all, with about sixty members, and we cannot refuse 
their invitation to stay a few minutes and take a cup of tea. The 
sides of the house we enter are covered with white patches pro- 
duced by the damp, and as the interior is dirty we are not sorry 
to be off. / 

The Tarim divides into two arms beyond Kamchap Khan, 
the greater part of the waters flowing to the left and forming 
a large marsh, with islets of sand rising above the surface here 
and there. At the rear of the village is a lake about 330 feet 
long, but not more than a foot or two deep, while beyond that. 



00 ACROSS THIBET. 

are peat-bogs, salt-ponds, and strips of ground covered by a few- 
stunted gorse-buslies and reed-beds. At Kamcliap Khan the 
sand banks come to an end, and the right arm of the Tarim, 
which continues to flow eastward, is only from seven to sixteen 
feet broad, its banks being scarcely visible, while the immense 
reeds which grow along them have their roots in the w^ater. The 
stream, already so much shrunken, is still further diminished 
by the number of small furrow^s cut on the right bank by the 
natives to guard against certain inundations. The river bends 
very much, and we have a difficidty in getting round some of the 
bends, owing to the length of our canoes, but our boatmen have 
made up their minds to the inevitable, and they accompany the 
motion of their oars with a rhythmical song, ending with a sort 
of sigh which Ave all repeat in chorus. Soon we are navigating 
a stream al)out five feet wide ; and, at the risk of whetting my feet, 

1 cannot resist the temptation of standing astride one of the 
largest rivers of Central Asia at its mouth, and seeing it flow 
between my legs. In front, behind, on each side and above us, 
are nothing but bulrushes, with patches of sky on Avhich stars are 
beginning to appear, for night is drawing on, and our men 
advance but slowly, while our stomachs remind us that it is high 
time to find a place o^ rest. 

All of a sudden, as if by enchantment, at the bend of the 
stream we come upon a little creek to the left, a clear space amid 
the rushes, a mead coming down to the bank, and on the bank a 
man ! I do not know" whether he or our party are the more sur- 
prised. 

On jumping ashore, my first impulse is to give him a coi'dial 
shake of the liand, as a man represents to my mind inhabitants, 
a village, fire, and dinner. But I cannot help being angiy wdth 
our boatmen for having deceived us by saying that there was no 
village beyond Kamchap Khan. 

I tell Abdullah to ask where Ave are. 

" At Eutin." 

"Did the boatmen knoA\' of tliis A'illao:e?" 



ICHTHT0PHAGI8TS. 93 

" Yes, they belong to it." 

" Why did they not tell us of it ? " 

" They were afraid that we should steal their wives." 

"Reassure them, and say that we only ask them to give us 
shelter, and that we do not mean them any harm." 

Our men do as they are bid, and take us to the hamlet, the 
name of which means "a place that has been burnt," for the 
houses are built upon a small clearing made by a fire in the 
midst of the reeds. There is a population of about fifty. Our 
boatmen had been away for several days, so their aged fathers 
greset them by kissing them on both cheeks ; while they, in their 
turn, embrace their sons. We ingratiate ourselves with all the 
inhabitants by buying one of the two village sheep which had 
been fattened for the marriage of the chief's son, and as soon as 
the animal has been killed and cut up it is cooked, we sharing 
the meal with our hosts. This is a great treat for them, as they 
rarely taste meat more than once a year; and, in addition to 
being too poor to afford it, they say that it would be bad for 
them to eat it frequently. Perhaps this is another case of 
" grapes being sour," but, in any case, it is certain that, like 
certain peoj^les of Arabia, they are ichthyophagists, though they 
eat duck as well as fish. In theii^ view, as in that of the medi- 
aeval monks, the flesh of ducks is not meat ; though the motive 
for holding this view may not be the same. They also eat the 
young sprouts of the reeds, and the roots of the wild hemp, 
which they fry. I am delighted at their friendly feeling, and 
take advantage of their loquacity and of Abdullah's good- 
humor to pursue the investigation which I had begun at Ab- 
dullah. We shall probably not go any farther on the Lob Nor, 
or ever return there, so it would be a pity to lose the oppor- 
tunity of getting information with regard to regions of which so 
little is known. 

Here, as in the other villages, we are seated in a circle round 
the hearth, the fire being made of bundles of dried reeds. The 
ends are lighted first, and the flame gradually consumes the 



94 ACROSS THIBET. 

stalks, a little girl pushing the bundle further in as it bums. 
The flame is very vivid ; so as we get a better light than we should 
from a lamp, and are well warmed into the bargain, we have 
nothing to complain of. 

The bulk of our conversation is mth an old woman, whose 
skin is so wrinkled that it is scarcely possible to distinguish her 
toothless mouth between her nose and her chin. According to 
the custom of the country, her head is covered with a fichu ; her 
hands are mere skin and bones, and on one of her fingers is a 
ring with a small blue stone — a colored pebble, which has j)rob- 
ably been palmed off upon her by a Chinaman. From the 
frontiers of Siberia to Tonquin, and even beyond, it is safe to 
say : " Wherever there is a robbery, a Chinaman is in it." The 
old lady appears to be held in high esteem in her village, this 
beino^ due to her a2:e and to her musical talents ; for whenever 
the conversation flags she takes u]3 a two-stringed guitar and 
sino-s long; leojends to a monotonous, but soft and harmonious 
tune, relating the history of her ancestors, their origin, theii* 
struggles, their flight, and their return. She sings in a nasal, 
deliberate tone, in a Turkish dialect which Abdullah has a dif- 
ficulty in following. But one of our boatmen, who knows the 
Tcharkalik language, S^ssists him, and, with the help of Father 
Dedeken and his Chinese, I succeed in noting down a good part 
of the legend, as follows : 

'' Once upon a time four kings ruled the country, which was 
very prosperous ^vitli its Mussulman inhabitants. These kings 
were : Attagout Aglia [Agha is a title], residing at Kargalik ;* 
Nouniaz Agha, Mardjan Agha, both of whom resided at Gashar,f 
and Cher Agha, at Mienchari, near Abdullah.;^ Then came the 
Mongolians, who entered upon a struggle with them. They 
massacred a portion of the male inhabitants, and as the others 
did not choose to remain as slaves they fled, mth some of the 

* Kargalik, now Tcharkalik. 

f Three days' march from Tcharkalik, on the route to Kliotan. 

X These rcsick'nces were towns, the ruins of which are still visible in the desert. 



A NATIVE LEGEND. 95' 

women, and succeeded in escaping eastward three days' marcli 
from Entin.* 

" There was still water there then, though now there is only 
saltpeter, but as the fugitives had no house they dug down into 
the ground to make fire, vv^hence the name of the place, Kara- 
houtchoun (black chimneys). There they began to feed only on 
fish and ducks. 

" They remained more than a century, but in the meanwhile 
the Mongolians had gone away, after having destroyed every- 
thing, and the exiles, driven from their new colony by the 
drought, gradually returned to the west. 

" Some went along the banks of the Tarim, between Kourla 
and Lob. Others proceeded as far as the former site of Kar- 
galik, the name of which they had forgotten. Seeing ruins, they 
re-excavated them in search of treasure, but the Mongolians had 
carried off everything, and the exiles found nothing but a spin- 
ning whee'l. So they gave the name of Tcharkal, which means 
spinning-wheel, to the town which they built. 

"The chase and the rearing of stock sufiiced for their needs 
until the arrival of an aged chief from Khotan, Ismail Ata,f who 
offered to teach them tillage. His offer being accepted, he 
brought several companions with him. And now differences 
arose between the former owners of the soil and the Khotanese ; 
and the latter have many sons, who take in marriage the daugh- 
ters of the former. But our race has always remained intact, 
and has not been subjected to any mixture of blood." % 

She then abandons the domain of history for that of romance, 
and her improvisations, which seem to captivate the attention of 
her hearers, have less interest for us. I prefer learning all I can 
about the Lob Nor, and question those next to me. 

I am told that it was also by exiles on their return from 

* Some went as far as the Tsaidam, where Prjevalsky discovered their tombs. 

f We passed a night under his roof. 

X She forgets that a good many of the people who came from Karahoutchoun took 
hack their wives, although they had borne children or were heavy with child to the 
Mongolians, their masters. 



96 ACEOSS THIBET. 

KarahoutclioLm tliat tlie little villages along tlie banks of the 
Tarim in tlie Lob ISTor were founded. Ata (the aged father) was 
born at Karahoutchoun sixty-eight years ago, and thirty-five 
years ago founded the hamlet of Eutin. Beyond Eutin, going in 
the direction of Karahoutchoun, there are two villages : Kara- 
kayuk and Deutchne, the latter being already uninhabited, for 
the water has run off, the reeds have disappeared, and their 
places are taken by sand and salt. Karakayuk will soon be 
abandoned, as its two last inhabitants are collecting their 
Avretched belongings before leaving, and the people of Eutin are 
on the point of migrating westward. 

The fishermen are taking refuge in the oasis of Tcharkalik, 
and are becoming tillers of the soil. The inhabitants of the 
Lob IN or, like the waters of the Tarim, are gradually Avithdrawing ; 
the hovels are falling in, the hamlets are disappearing, and their 
very sites are invaded by giant reeds, which, in turn, no longer 
having the water needed to nourish them, are drying up atid 
withering away. Then will begin the slow but certain work of 
the sand, which will come and cover the ruins of ancient cities, 
the remnants of villages, the houses whether of mud or of wood, 
the withered rushes, and the dead reeds, spreading over all this 
district a vast pall wtich it will be impossible to raise, for the 
sand will have buried what is now the Lob Nor in evei'lasting 
oblivion. 

This has already partly done its w^ork, for the Lob Nor, as we 
see it, is not as it was in Prjevalsky's time, and the Russian 
general himself could not find the lake * which is marked upon 
the old Chinese maps, and the existence of which is confirmed 
by the old woman we are talking with. According to the tradi- 
tion handed down from generation to generation, there was at 
one time here a vast inland sea, mthout any sedges or reeds. 

* It is this great lake whicli, according to tlie tradition, has given the Lob Nor its 
name — Lob being a local word signifying wild animals. It was already given to the 
district when the Kalmuck caravans traversed it, and they added the Mongolian word 
ISTor (great lake). 



NATIVE CUSTOMS. 97 

Tlie old men of tlie tribe themselves had seen' large lakes, though 
nothing to compare with the sea which they had heard spoken 
of. One of them says that the water recedes every day, and 
that it must be absorbed by the saltpeter. To this reason, which 
may be to some extent valid, I will add another — for the last ten 
years Chinese Turkestan, which was formerly the theater of con- 
stant civil wars, seems to have been pacified, at all events for a 
time, and the inhabitants take advantage of this truce to devote 
themselves to the cultivation of the fields, which they had been 
compelled for some time to abandon. In order to irrigate theii* 
fields they have diverted part of the waters of the Tarim, which 
are thus lost in irrigations or artificial inundations ; while crops 
like cotton or rice, which require a great deal of moisture, are 
becoming more extensive each year, and consequently the body 
of water brought into the Lob Nor district is very considerably 
less. 

In reply to our questions as to whether they enjoy good 
health, and to what complaints they are subject, they reply that 
their mode of life is a healthy one, and that epidemics are rare. 
They do not know what it is to have smallpox, and are never 
subject to the ulcers which are so frequent in the East. When 
they reach a certain age they generally live to be old ; but 
among young children the mortality is at the rate of one in five. 
They tell us that the children have no malady, but " they will 
not keep alive," and this is the best explanation we can get. 
The complaints from which adults suffer come chiefly from the 
damp — either a chill, or rheumatism in the legs, which some- 
times partially paralyzes old people ; or else a disease of the 
bones. This is often the consequence of rheumatism, and the old 
dame tells us that when this disease of the bones attacks a woman 
who is with child she is sure to die. 

When a marriage takes place the father of the bridegroom 
gives the father of the bride ten bundles of wild hemp, ten packets 
of dried fish, ten cups of fish oil, a stewpan, twenty oi' thirty 
loaves of bread, from fifty to a hundred ducks, a flint and steel, 



98 



AOIiOSti THIBET. 



and a boat. TMs is the ordinary tariff, tlie ricli giving a few 
additional fisli or ducks. The eatables are, moreover, consumed 
at the wedding feast. The reader will gather from this list of 
presents that the principal occupation is shooting and fishing. 

They can neither read noi' write, and the traditions of the 
country are handed down Ijy word of mouth from one generation 
to another. Some of these traditions comprise lofty ideas ; for 




THE LATTER END OP THE TAEIM. 



these people, though very poverty-stricken, are not savages. They 
are religious, and declare themselves proud of being Mohammedans 
— this constituting one of the reasons for their contempt of the 
Chinese and Mongolians, whom they describe as people having 
" no books." Their religious practices consist in listening to a few 
verses of the Koran recited by one of the elders of the tribe ; but 
their ceremonies are simple, being limited to burials. When a 
man dies, his hands and feet are tied, and if his family has any 
cloth a new garment is made for him ; but if not he is dressed 
in an old one. An elder recites a few Mussulman prayers, and 
the corpse is then placed on a stretcher made of reeds and osiers. 
It is covered with rushes, and placed in the midst of the reeds,. 



NATIVE BURIALS. 99 

and his relatives cut more reeds and heap them on the dead 
body ; a pole bearing a bit of paper at the end is fixed in the 
ground, and so the cei^emony ends. 

All along the lower course of the Tarim the mode of pro- 
cedure is the same, with this slight diiference, that in certain 
places for the pile of reeds is substituted a small hillock of sand. 

We have been conversing for a couple of hours, and before 
going to rest the aged Ata asks us in turn a question — he can- 
not believe that we are not Russians, and he wants to know why 
^^Te do not come to deliver them from the Chinese. We promise 
him we will do what we can, and, in wishing each other good- 
night, we cordially agree in expressing our detestation of all the 
Chinese. The parents embrace their children, and the family 
affections are evidently strong among these good people. It is 
not a long business for them to go to bed, as they stretch them- 
selves out on the ground, the women remaining in the same room 
as the men, separated oidy by a sort of awning made of lough 
canvas, and stretched on to reeds from the ceiling. 
• November 7. — It is very cold, and when Ave get up there are 
eig-ht dcOTees of frost, with a strong: northeast wind. Before 
leaving we endeavor to have a little sport in the reeds, but they 
are too thick, and we cannot go far. Moreover, we are told that 
the wild boars, which used to be very abundant here, have been 
driven away by a tiger. So we should gain nothing by going 
further eastward, and if we have any spare time, we prefer to 
ascend the Tarim, this side of Abdullah, toward Lole. Our re- 
turn journey is accomplished without mishap, though we ai'e 
overtaken by a tempest which at once freezes and blinds us, and 
we are compelled to wrap ourselves up in our touloupes, to pull 
our fur caps down over our ears and eyes, and, having thus volun- 
tarily rendered ourselves deaf and blind, we sit quite still, at the 
risk of getting our feet frozen, so as not to disturb the equilibrium 
of our boats. So we are not sorry to see Couzetrzoif again, and 
the fire before which he is cooking some birds. 

Novemher 8. — One of my first visits is to the cemetery of 



100 ACROSS THIBET. 

Abdullah, which is situated on three sandhills the other side of 
the Tarim, its site being indicated by poles on which are placed 
the heads of horses or the tails of yaks. Upon one of the hillocks, 
perhaps that reserved for the buiial of the chiefs, is a small reed 
hut divided into two compartments, in each of which is a sort of 
wooden rack filled with the horns of deer and antelopes, while in 
front of the hut are more stags' antlers and antelope heads dried 
with the skin on them. I bring away a few of these horns, hiding 
them under my coat, and in the afternoon I go off for a ride with 
Barachdin and a guide who is to show us the way to a large lake 
to the southeast. As we leave the village we meet a Mongol 
caravan consisting of about fifty camels and twenty horses, most 
of them fully loaded, coming from Karachar. The Kalmucks who 
are riding them ai'e on the way to meet their sovereign, who, as 
we learn, has lost most of his beasts of burden on his way from 
Lhassa. It is useless for us to stop and talk with them, for they 
would not give us any interesting information, so we continue 
our march. After riding about six miles, we reach two small 
depressions in the ground which are barely moist, and beyond 
that there is no vegetation, the stony desert extending to the first 
spurs of the Altyn-Tagh. There is not the slightest trace of the 
great lake we had been told of, but our guide says that it was 
there three months ago. He adds that half a day further on 
(extending his hand toward the south) there are ruins nearly 
buried in the sand, only the tops of the houses being \'isible, 
supposed to be the remains of a large town. 

On our return, we find the village of Abdullah in a state of 
uproar, the whole population rushing about, shouting and gestic- 
ulating ; the men saddling their horses in haste, the women and 
children crying, and two old women, bent double, gi'oaning in 
quavering tones and exclaiming, " Allah ! Allah ! " The horses 
are soon ready, and the men, with Kunchi Khan Bey at their 
head, all make oif in the same dii'ection. We watch them till 
they disappear in a cloud of dust, and ^vhen we ask the meaning 
of this, the women, who have calmed down a little since the 



FESTIVITIES. 101 

departure of their husbands, soothed, perhaps, by the consoling 
tones of the gallant Abdullah, proceed to tell us, still sobbing at 
intervals, what has happened. They ask us if we do not see 
something in the dii-ection which the horsemen have taken, and 
when we tell them '' No, nothing but dust," they say that the 
men who went off on a shooting expedition a month ago have 
been seen, but that whereas three started only two have returned. 
Two of the three were sons of Kunchi Khan Be}^ In the mean- 
while the little band of sportsmen draws closer and then it is seen 
that all three are there, so that the lamentations are turned into 
rejoicings quite as noisy. The whole village went out to meet 
the three men, who were on foot, with emaciated faces and 
clothes much torn, walking very slowly and leading three don- 
keys. When asked what had become of the two other beasts, 
they said that they had died of cold, and the loss of these two 
animals excited fresh lamentations from among the old women. 

After the elders Avho had gone out to meet them had got oil' 
their horses and kissed them, the young men were made to 
tell the story of their adventures. First they went southward 
and then eastward, and though they had seen a great many 
wild camels they had only killed two, the second at six days' 
march from here. The skins had been cut up into rectangular 
pieces and loaded on a donkey. Nearly all the hair had been 
rubbed off, and they had put it into a bag for fear of its being 
spoilt on the way. 

The return of the chasseurs * and our presence in the village are 
made an occasion for amusements in the evening. The women 
put on their smartest things, in most cases a watered silk dress, 
reminding one of the Bokhara stuft's, with red in front, while the 
wives f of the chief have a caftan trimmed with black sheep, 
while one of them wears her rings passed, through one end of the 

* Note of the Translator .—It seems a pity that we have not in English a comprehensive 
vford like "chasseur "to desiifnate those who go shooting, hunting, or fishing, as the 
case may be. Even "the chase " is only used in English now to designate hunting. 

f It must be remembered that we are among Mussulmans, each of whom has at least 
two wives — they are fairly cheap. 



102 ACROSS THIBET. 

ficliu which she has on her head, having taken them off her 
fingers for fear of injuiing them while cutting reeds for the tire. 
One of the women is rather pretty : a Khotanese, with regulai- . 
features and a pale complexion, which brings into relief her big 
black eyes, surmounted by a finely-arched pair of eyebrows. 
Like her companions, she is short in stature, but, being better 
looking, she excites their Jealousy. Madame Tocasch, to give her 
her name, very much regrets her native land, finding Abdullah 
too savage, and to mark her disapprobation she ran away a few 
days ago to her parents, who reside at Tcharkalik, but they, 
instead of taking her in, informed her husband, and helped him 
to get her back. An honest man, when he has sold his daughter 
and been paid for her, would consider that he had committed a 
theft if he took her back to the prejudice of his son-in-law, and 
as to the girl herself, she is not consulted in the matter. 

Madame Tocasch shows her superiority over her companions 
by the grace with which she dances. She is accompanied in her 
dance by some of the men, who nod their heads as they move 
round, and stretch out their arms, which are hidden in the long 
sleeves of their kalat (large cloak). Although they are agile 
and light-footed, the dance — to which our Russian plays a tune 
upon his harmonium, two or three of the old women chanting in 
a nasal tone — soon becomes monotonous. 

Novemhei' 9. — The minimum of temperature is about one 
degree below zero, but although the morning is cold there is no 
wind, and it is, therefore, good weather for going up the Tarim. 
Before leaving Abdullah we make a few final purchases (of 
snares, dried fish, sandals made of donkey skin), payment be- 
ing effected in Chinese money, which has to be weighed, a 
slow and troublesome operation to which we shall have to get ac- 
customed. Kunchi Khan Bey and his family allow themselves 
to be photographed again, and he gives us a supply of small 
loaves of bread made by his wife and wishes us a safe Journey. 
We promise him to retui'n " some day," but in the meanwhile we 
have to make a start, and, choosing between vaiious modes of 



THE TARIM FROZEN. 103 

locomotion, I go on foot as far as the first Abdullah, where I 
take a cup of tea (with a piece of butter in it) with the old 
centenarian, whose sons are sharpening their spears and getting 
their guns ready for the pursuit of the wild camels. They 
accompany us as far as our canoes, which have arrived from 
the other village of Abdullah, and, with the weather not so 
cold as it was yesterday, we remount the stream, om" boatmen 
finding it veiy hard work to row against the strong current. 
Floating pieces of ice come into collision with our canoes, and 
we are at times almost hemmed in between them, the oars 
having no hold upon their surface. In the bends the river is 
completely frozen over, and we have to break the ice and clear a 
passage, reminding one of polar navigation. The two natives 
who are in charge of our big canoe sing all the time, one having 
a strong harsh voice and the other a shrill one. A¥e imitate 
their singing in order to raise the drooping spirits of our own 
men; but in s^^ite of all their efforts they cannot make much 
headway, and we have barely advanced ten miles in a straight 
line when we have to stop for the night. Our donkeys and 
horses have overtaken us, and having picketed them, we roll our- 
selves up in our rugs and pass a very pleasant night in the open, 
despite there being twenty-seven degrees of frost. 

Novemher 10. — Navigation, difiicult as it was yesterday, now 
becomes impossible, and we have to be content to follow the 
Tarim by going along its banks. We meet boatmen whose canoes 
are firmly fixed in the ice, and they say they have been in this 
plight for three days, unable either to go back or to advance. 
They ask us to give them some food, which we do as far as our 
scanty means permit, and then resume our journey, coming, a 
"few miles higher up, on a pile of bags, and of reeds ,vhich have 
been cut and laid out on the banks. This is opposite a small 
village called Tchai, the inhabitants of which are about to mi- 
grate to Tcharkalik, and have already taken their baggage across. 
When they see us making for their bags they take us for thieves, 
r nd begin to run away ; but when we assure them that we d(? 



104 ACROSS THIBET. 

not mean them any harm, they gradually gain confidence, and 
on our offering them a cup of tea they become quite convinced 
that we are friends, and give us all the information we ask for. 
They tell us that the sheet of water fi'om which we see the Tarim 
issue, a hundred yards or so above Tchai, is the Karabourau, 
though it is little more than a series of inundations representing 
the largest stretch of water to be found in the Lob Nor. It 
begins at the village of Lob, and ends here, being interspersed 
at many points by lagoons or islets. It is no^vhere more than 
three feet deep, in most places only a foot, while the lake which 
we skirted above Lob is the Kemezetiantche, which does not 
communicate with the Karabourau, for since Prjevalsky came 
into the district the coiu^se of the Tarim has been changed, and 
the level of the waters has dropped. 

These indications save us the trouble of following the bank of 
the Karabourau, so that we deteruiine to make a short cut across 
the country opposite Tchai, 

AVhile the light still lasts I try for a little shooting on the 
Karabourau ; but we have great difficulty in getting the canoe 
there, as the cui'rent of the Taiim is very strong at the entrance 
to the lake, and when Ave get there it is a sheet of ice, so we have 
to give up the idea of»going any further. My excursion, though 
a brief one, is not altogether fruitless, for I succeed in bringing 
down, with No. 4 shot, a very fine white swan of the species which 
is domesticated with us, as he flies over my head, while A^ith a 
bullet I kill a goose flyiug in the midst of a flock, these being 
two shots which I should be sorry to back myself to rej)eat. In 
the evening the natives attempt to surprise us by their learning, 
and they repeat the word " Padisouda," Avhich they have retained 
in their memory since the visit of Prjevalsky. 

Novemher 11. — Commencing our march 1)}' moonlight, we 
observe for the first time the phenomenon which will strike us 
so often upon the highlands, viz., a sudden drop of the temper- 
ature as the moon appears above the horizon. We are at present 
very insufficiently protected against the cold, and although we. 



A MARCH BY MOONLIGHT. 105 

are walking we shiver from head to foot, while, for my own part, 
I do not know what to do with my hands, which are so numbed 
that I cannot get them warm. We have no choice but to wait 
till the sun has got up, when a fresh trouble arises. We are 
in a desert the sand of which is in many places covered with 
a layer of salt, and the refraction is so great that we are con- 
stantly being led astray by the mirages, while we are dazzled, 
blinded, and half -roasted by the sun into the bargain. It seems 
as if all the sun's rays were converging upon us, and as if there 
were no choice but to let ourselves be thoroughly baked. 

Our horses do not seem to be so much affected by it as we 
are, and I really believe that they can smell their stable, though 
still more than thirty miles oft'. There is no road, and we have 
to guide ourselves by the compass ; but the instinct of our horses 
is the best guide, and we speed along at such a rate that a courier 
sent forward by Bonvalot has scarcely time to hand us a letter. 
It arrives rather late, for we are already in the oasis, and before 
long we see a rivulet, some gorse, then some tamarisks, several 
small poplars,* and last of all, Rachmed, going off at a great pace 
after " those wretched hares." In a few minutes we are in the 
camp, which has the aspect of a small town, with people coming 
and going in all directions, buying and selling, gossiping, and 
nailing down boxes, while in the center of the camp is our little 
tent, beneath which Bonvalot, with his legs crossed Turkish 
fashion, is enjoying a meal of sparrows, cooked on a skewer with 
slices of sheep's liver in between them. 

All is well at Tcharkalik, our Russians are preparing for their 
return, and two men of the country have been engaged to accom- 
pany us. The provisions are gradually accumulating ; bread is 
being baked with plenty of salt in it, sheep's paunches are being 
filled with fat, the salt is being purified, and the preparations are 
well advanced. Our men, however, were very much obstructed 
in their work by a tempest which lasted two days, blew down 
the tent, and covered everything with sand. M. Bonvalot has. 
effected a regular massacre of hares, and we, in return, give him 

* Populus di'cersifolico. 



106 



ACROSS TUIBET. 



an account of our excursion, wliicli lias lasted a week, and in the 
course of wliicli we have traced the course of the Tarim in the 
Lob Nor, and have ascertained that this latter name does not 
apply to a lake, but to all the marshy portion of the country 

watered by the Tarim, from 
the village of Lob to the 
end of the river. 

The lai'D-est stretch of 
water in this region is the 
Karabouran, a tract under 
water between Lob and 
Tchai. The waters of the 
Tarim are not salt, while 
there are springs of fresh 
water (Eutin) in the Lob 
Nor, but the water of the 
pools formed by the Tarim 
upon a saltpeter surface 
is brackish. Each year the quantity of water which the 
Tarim brings into the country decreases, the pools diy up, 
and the reeds are more and more covered by the sand which 
is gradually driving the inhabitants toward Tcharkalik, so 
the time is not far distant when the region called the Lob 
Nor will no longer be distinguishable from the desert into 
the midst of which it now advances like a narrow ribbon of 
Terdure unwinding itself from west to east for a distance of about 
seventy-five miles. 




SPINNING WOMAN AT ABDULLAH. 



CHAPTER V. 

FEOM TCHARKALIK TO BOULAK BACHL 

" The Southern Koad " — Taking- Stock — New Recruits : Timour and Isa— Festivities at 
Tcharkalik — A Nomad Moralist and Poet — Tramps — Prince Henry's Return — 
Taking a Chief into Custody — The Doungane and his Master — The Start— Yan- 
dachkak— The Altyn-Tagh — Valley of the Djahan-Sai — Tchoukour-Sai — Through a 
Canon — Prince Henry Lost. 

Noveriiber 1. — We^ are so far fi'om liaving completed our work 
that what we have hithei'to done has been little more than a 
simple excursion, attended by drawbacks so trifling that they 
merely gave an interest to the journej^ I have said that the 
first stage was Kourla, the second is Tcharkalik, and the third 
would be Ba-Tang, if all continues to go as well as at present. 
Ba-Tang is a long way off, separated from us by dicserts and the 
unknown. After Ba-Tang we hope to reach Tonquin, at the 
other end of Asia, but when traveling one has not, fortunately, 
much time to reflect upon the difficulties before one. In the 
meantime we have constantly in our minds the ]3assage in the 
narrative of the English traveler Carey, published in the Pro- 
ceedings of the Geographical Society of England, in which he 
speaks of a route going to Lhassa by the Kizil-Sou, a river sup- 
posed to be beyond the mountain chain which Prjevalsky saw, 
and which he named Columbo. Carey had heard the natives 
talk of this route, but they had never shown it to him. Accord- 
ing to rumor it is more direct than that of the Tsaidame which 
joins the route of the Koukou-Nor, first traveled by Fathers Hue 
and Gabet, and afterward by Prjevalsky. 

We must, therefore, at all costs discover this route which, in 
talking of it, we call " the southern road." We send our men to 
make inquiries, and each of them endeavors to light upon the 

* The narrative is here resumed by M. Bonvalot.^TRANSLATOB. 

107 



108 ACROSS THIBET. 

invaluable individual wlio knows it and is willing to guide us. 
But tlie mere fact of one of them having asked in a stupid sort 
of way is sufficient to prevent us getting any definite information. 
Moreover, very few of our men care to pursue the journey. Our 
three Siberians are going to leave us. They had agreed to come 
as far as the Lob Nor, but I cannot persuade them to come on 
farther, and the Doungane camel-driver is also anxious to come 
back, being only kept with us by the promise ot high pay. So 
we look out for volunteers in the district, and two offer their 
services, one of them knowing the Bogalik road which Carey 
took. We promise them good wages, and their arrival helps to 
raise the spirits of the Dounganes. 

The chief of our camel-drivers, the aged Imatch, though he 
w^alks with great difficulty, will hold on to the last, and will go 
wherever the Khotanlis go, Parpa has already been over the 
road, and he does not appear to bleed from the nose, but he has 
a mysterious way I don't much like when I speak to him of the 
southern route. If he is to be believed, he is acquainted with a 
very good guide, but does not know his name. He says, ho'\\'- 
ever, that he can find him, and begs permission to go and ask for 
information in the village and in the farms scattered about in 
the bush. He returns without bringing any important tidings, 
and I soon ascertain that he has been after something veiy 
different from the southern route. 

As to our interpreter Abdullah, surnamed the "little man," 
he is still a terrible talker, and a busybody who sees that things 
are not progi'essing as he would like. He did not think we were 
in eai'nest when we talked at Kuldja of going to Ba-Tang, his 
idea being that we should perhaps go as far as Kourla, and then 
follow the main imperial road to Pekin, or that, at the outside, 
we should go as far as the Lob Nor and then return. Now he is 
beginning to get anxious, and would like to dissuade us from 
going further, so we are convinced that we shall not get informa- 
tion of any value from him, though he professes to be more or 
less enthusiastic. 



NEW RE CE HITS. 



109 



To judge by what we have seen of the two fresh recruits, we 
shall have reason to be satisfied with them later on. The elder 
is called Timour and has been a shepherd, while he goes in for 
^old-mining and the chase when he has leisure. He is a married 
man, and cultivates a small plot of ground, and as he has often 
explored the Altyn-Tagh and the Tchimen-Tagh he does not feel 
any hesitation about accompanying us over the high table-lands. 
He executes orders without any trouble, is a quick worker and 

f ^ ^ ^"^ ^ 



€ ^ii\ 










^Ac^sg^^gQ^s;^^. vg^^^>gafe^^^'i^-^^^£<^^^^*^ids^y-ag 




"3* - ■--? " j,^--*' 



DONKEYS AND SHEEP ON THE ROAD. 



has the credit of being indefatigable on the march, while he 
takes good care of the horses and camels. He is always in good 
spirits, and, this being a very important point, is content with 
his lot at Tcharkalik. A very small piece of sugar suffices to 
make him happy, and he seems to take an interest in all we do, 
for he looks at our arms with manifest pleasure and tells us the 
names of the birds we have prepared for our collection. In the 
evening we can hear him singing and telling stories, and when 



110 ACBOSS THIBET. 

Rachmed or one of the others is relating an anecdote, lie follows 
all the details of it with close attention. In short, he is a poet 
and an adventurer. When asked if it will be cold in the 
southern mountains, he says yes, and thrusts his hands under his 
sleeves and warms them under his armpits. ''But," he adds 
with a lauo;h, " that will be nothino;." Withal he is not too tall 
nor too stout, is very alert, dances well, knows so many prayers 
by heart that he is taken for a mollah, and possesses remedies for 
various complaints. 

The other man, who is only about twenty, is called Isa. He is 
full of vigor, and can skin a sheep very dexterously, and cook 
rice well. He is equally good at eating both, and he takes an 
interest in all that relates to cooking, Avhile he is ready to split 
wood, light the fire and attend to it, fetch water, and clean out 
the saucepans. He has a very loud laugh, but so natural that 
one likes to hear it, especially as he is generally rather stern. 
He has a good memory, though he is said to be given to smok- 
ing hasheesh in small quantities, but those whom he has pre- 
viously served give him a good character. I saw him one night 
sleeping on a mat before the fire with no covering except a khalat, 
torn in several places. He was sleeping very soundly, though 
the fire had gone out ^nd the minimum temperature of the night 
was two degrees below zero. As he was very well the next day, 
and had not caught the slightest cold, I did not want to know 
more. 

We renew our provisions, the important thing being to insure 
plenty for the subsistence of men and beasts, as from all we 
have read, and from all we can learn on the spot, those who have 
preceded us were obliged to turn back from want of provisions. 
It is as important to feed the beasts of burden well as the men, 
for when the means of transport fail all exploring is impossible. 

As we can procure flour and barley here and get it made into 
bread, we employ all the women in the place, one procuring us 
one hundred pounds, and another fifty pounds, and we make them 
bake a small quantity at a time, and taste it to see that it is what 



FESTIVITIES AT TGHARKALIK. Ill 

we want. We buy all the dried fruits we can get, as well as rope, 
liorse-shoes, and nails, while we have winter clothing made for 
the horses and camels. 

The men's pelisses are sewn and made larger, trousers and leg- 
gings are made out of sheepskins, and plenty of leather leggings 
are provided, as well as leather stockings, into which the foot is 
inserted after it has been well wrapped up in felt. One of our 
Kussians is a shoemaker, and we employ him to make our felt 
boots, while the men prepare their own according to the fashion 
of their respective tribes. 

There is a regular market every day upon the outskirts of our 
little camp, and what with the chaffering, the disputing, and the 
laughing, the scene is very animated. We gradually get on 
friendly terms with the natives, and at the end of a week have 
acquired a certain degree of authority at Tcharkalik. We have 
created a " French party " in the place, and it is among the mem- 
bers of this party that we shall find men to transport our provi- 
sions for a month or more. 

On the birthday festival of Mohammed the authorities came 
in a body to pay a visit and offer us presents. They were 
anxious that Ave should participate in their rejoicings, for we were 
far from home and hearth, and it would be unbecoming if they 
were not to invite us. I thanked them and repeated the assur- 
ance that we had no bad intentions in our hearts, affirming that our 
acts would always be in keeping with our words. They said they 
believed what we told them, and asked permission to entertain 
our men. This, of course, I readily granted, and all day long the 
festival of Mohammed Avas celebrated by feasts, songs, dances, 
and sports, in which Rachmed, who is very agile, obtained marked 
success. Two sheep which we had given them were cooked in 
the immense pot belonging to the mosque. This pot came to a 
bad end, as we burst it while using it to refine crystallized salt — a 
mishap of evil omen which was atoned for by a present. 

Noveinber 8. — A terrible tempest from the northeast howled all 
night, and compels us to construct a shelter for our kitchen. The 



112 



ACROSS THIBET. 



temperature drops very suddenly, and tliis morning tlie natives 
appear in the guise of Northerners, all of them wearing sheep- 
skins and the furs of wild animals, such as foxes aiid evolves. 

Our people avail themselves of the op- 
portunity to try on their winter costumes, 
and very odd some of them look. 

A man ariived in the course of the 
morning from Abdullah village Avith 
donkeys and horses, bringing at the same 
time some wild duck, and a letter from 
Prince Hemy. Another piece of news 
announces the arrival at Abdullah of 
four Kalmucks, who are believed to form 
the advance guard of the Khan of the 
Kalmucks, this personage being on his 
way back from a pilgrimage to Lhassa. 
He is expected to arrive in a very deplor- 
able condition, as his caravan has been 
decimated, and he has lost two hundi'ed 
camels and twenty men. He has made 
the return journey chieil}^ with koutasses 
■ (yaks), and has come by way of the Tsai- 
dame, for the messenger says that when the Khan of the Kal- 
mucks attempted to reach the " City of the Spirits," some twenty 
years ago, by way of the Kizil-Sou, he had to turn back because 
the mountains were impassable. 

The Aksakal of Khotanli having brought me some marmot 
fat as a cure for an attack of rheumatism from which I am suf- 
fering, I questioned him about the route of the Kizil-Sou, and, 
without giving a definite opinion, he let me understand that Ht- 
tle importance was to be attached to what the Lobi say. As re- 
gards the difficulties of the route, he says there can be no doubt 
as to that, and that upon one occasion, when he went in tlie direc- 
tion of Bogalik with one hundred and fifty asses to bring back 
gold and skins, he lost a number of his beasts and some of his 




A NOMAD MORALIST AND POET. 113 

companions. Their death was due to the cold, and above all to 
the pestilential odors emitted from the soil, which were even 
more fatal to the asses than to the men. It is impossible to learn 
anything definite as to this route, the existence of which we re- 
gard as more than probable. The natives of Lob and Tcharka- 
lik have never followed it, and the Kalmuck pilgrims have no 
information on the subject. Parpa asserts that a guide whom he 
knows is returning with the band of the Khan of the Torgoutes, 
and he asks leave to go and meet him at Abdullah. This leave 
I refuse, as he has two months' wages in his pocket, and with the 
cold weather setting in he might be tempted to return home . 

After the tempest, the atmosphere is more free from dust, and 
the sky becomes clear. It freezes, however, harder than the 
natives care about, the minimum under the tent being 10°. This 
sudden fall of temperature has alarmed the population, all of 
whom have quitted their houses, and they make off into the 
bush, those who are strong enough to do so carrying a fagot on 
their backs. The Aryk is frozen over, and the fields in fallow 
are white with frost. 

We, too, are impatient to follow the example of the swallows, 
the last of which have been driven by the tempest to warmer 
climes. After this storm had raged for two days, the sun re- 
appeared, and, with the sparrows chirruping and the natives 
returning to our camp, business begins to look up again. For 
the purchase of the smallest bit of cloth or a pound of grapes 
interminable speeches are made, and the names of Allah and of 
Mohammed his prophet are incessantly invoked. 

November 9. — The minimum is two degrees below zero, with 
a refreshing breeze from the northwest, while it is 60° in the sun. 
The natives have turned the waters of the Aryk into the wells, 
so as to secure a full supply for the winter ; and for the last 
week the mills have been going in anticipation of this drought, 
each householder being anxious to have plenty of flour in store. 

A singer, who seems to me very proficient, accompanies him- 
self upon a guitar, and gives us a song as we sit in front of the 



114 ACROSS THIBET. 

fire ; while the dancers, male and female, are going througli their 
performances in more or less graceful attitudes. The burden of 
his song is that the world is all delusion, and that man is ah\-ays 
looking for the realization of desires which it would be as diffi- 
cult for him to obtain as it would be to seize the moon, though 
he sees her every month. 

He is said to be the author of the couplets he sings, and we 
ask him to accompany us and bring with him his guitar, which 
is made of two pieces of poplar wood ; for a moralist like him 
would be a desirable acquisition to our party. He has traveled 
about a good deal, having been to Yarkand, and prospected for 
gold in all sorts of places, but he does not appear to have made 
his fortune, and it is his disappointments that have inspired him 
with this doleful song. He has the reputation of being an 
honest fellow, and at the festival of Mohammed he won the wrest- 
ling prize in the " Olympic " games. Although a native of 
Khotanli, he is the intimate friend of a certain Abdullah-Ousta. 
who is very proficient in the art of iron-working, and who be- 
longs to Lob. Some years ago Tokta, as the singer is called, 
did a considerable service to the ao;ed Abdullah. The latter 
had got lost while pursuing mid camels, and would not have 
been able to rejoin his companions had not Tokta come upon 
him when he was almost dead with hunger and fatigue. From 
this time the two men have been very much attached to each other. 

We have ordered some iron, nails, and pegs from Abdullah- 
Ousta, and we hope to enroll him in our party ; for Tokta assm-es 
us that there is no one better acquainted with the mountain than 
the old man, who is still very vigorous, though his beard is -white. 
If he consents to accompany us his example will be followed by 
many othei's. 

Tokta, before leaving us, says that we shall get plenty of help 
if the white-beards of the Lobis do not interfere, and that the 
Khotanlis are all in our favor. 

Rachmed says that Tokta may be trusted, because he is- 



TRAMPS. 115 

"What is 'saia'?" 

" A man like ourselves, who cannot stay long in one place 
owing to his mother's fault." 

"Explain yourself." 

" That is what happened in my case, and must have done in 
that of Tokta. Our mothers, when pregnant with us, traveled 
through the desert on camels ; and as the}' strained their eyes to 
see beyond the horizon they made of us '■ saia,' or tramps. And 
that is why we are again about to march southward, and Allah 
alone knows when and where we shall stop. And we shall do 
well to start, for the route seems to me a long one, while those 
cursed camels do not go fast." 

Thereupon Rachmed reproaches me for having taken him into 
my service when he scarcely had any beard, of having made him 
grow more white hairs than black, and of having made him miss 
several desirable marriages. Then, being very volatile, he flies 
off at a tangent and plays some joke upon the man next him, 
loading him with the insults which the Uzbegs proffer in all 
good humor. 

Rachmed is right ; it is urgent that we should start, but all is 
not ready. The Doungane must make up his mind to go, and 
then we can apportion the loads according to the strength of the 
different animals. At least forty donkeys and ten men are re- 
quired to relieve our own beasts a little, and feed them, as well 
as the men, for a month. The Khotanlis have as good as prom- 
ised us half, but the question is whether the Lobis will supply 
the other half. It is always difficult to get prepared for every 
contingency when setting out for a long march. We find this 
out once more, and Rachmed confidently mentions that he has 
doubts with regard to the Doungane and the Lobi. 

As soon as Prince Henry and Dedeken return from the Lob 
^ve shall settle these questions ; in the meantime the best course 
will be to display great amiability, to pay liberally, and never to 
refuse a request for medicine or drags. 

November 11. — While busy eating some roast sparrows cooked 



116 



ACROSS THIBET. 



by Parpa, I heard tlie voice of Prince Henry, wlio ariived in higli 
spirits after a journey of over forty miles since daybreak. He 
appears to be in excellent liealth and condition, and liis first 
question, after inquiring liow we all are, was as to when we were 
to start. While I was telling him how we are situated Father 
Dedeken arrived, and to celebrate »)ur reunion we had tea got 
ready and a repast cooked. AVhile it was in preparation we 



^-%fv:. 








AT THK FOOT OF THE ALTYN-TAGH. 



talked of the Lob Nor, and their conclusion is that it is but a 
vast marsh interspersed Avith jungles, amid which are hidden the 
dwellings of fishermen. 

Before starting we have to arrange for the i*eturn of oiu' thi'ee 
Siberians, as they are to go back to Kuldja with our collections 
and letters, which the Russian consul will send on for us to 
Paris. We give them camels for conveying the packages to 
Kourla, where they will purchase an arba (sort of wagon), foi' it 
is their intention to return by the imperial highway of Om'omtsi, 



TAKING A CHIEF INTO CUSTODY. IVi 

maMng the circuit of the Celestial Mountains. We give them 
plenty of food and ammunition, and should have much liked to 
retain at least one of the three, but Barodjdine was married, and 
Maltzofi* had undertaken the Journey so as to make a small sum 
for his wedding, while the third, Kousnetzoff, whom we had 
engaged at Tioumen, would not have been as useful to us as 
either of the others, for he is no longer young, and is unfitted for 
very severe labor ; but as an assistant in our naturalist work he has 
always been most conscientious and willing, using care, order, and 
patience. We cannot be too thankful to him or say too much in 
his favor. 

November 12. — We ask the municipality to supply us, at a 
price to be mutually agreed upon, with horses and with donkeys 
to carry a portion of our provisions as far as the vicinity of the 
Kizil-Sou, by way of the Bogalik route. We are promised an 
answer for to-morrow, after a council has been held. 

November 13. — -This morning we see a large body of men 
approaching our camp ; the chiefs and nearly all the people of the 
village, Khotanlis and Lobis alike, being present. They halt at 
the threshold of our temporary domain, and a tall fellow with a 
scanty goatee, whom we have not seen before, opens the conversa- 
tion and explains himself to Rachmed, who interprets what he 
says. We learn that the speaker is the principal chief of the 
Lobis, and he says in so many words that they will give us neither 
men nor asses, because it is too cold for mountaineering, and that 
to travel over the mountains at this season is certain death, etc. 

Rachmed, in very gentle terms, insists. He reminds his hear- 
ers " of the good we have done in the country, of the money we 
have spent in it, of the high prices we have paid for everything 
with the object of being of service to the poor vendors," then he 
asks how it is that the promises made to us but yesterday are 
not kept, and inquires whether we have given reason for suppos- 
ing that we shall not pay as we have promised to do. 

In the meanwhile we learn that secret orders have arrived 
from Kourla. The Lobi chiefs are said to have been prohibited 



118 ACROSS THIBET. 

from rendering us any assistance, and as they have asked for the 
aid of the Chinese against the Khotanlis they are determined to 
obey orders and to put obstacles in our way. 

The Lobi chief gets arrogant, and exclaims " By Jupiter ! If 
you want donkeys you shall pay twice their value, and I won't 
sell you any. As to men for your service, not one shall leave 
the country. We are not under any bond to you, we do not 
pay you a tax, we pay it to the Chinese. No, we are under no 
bond to you, and we are not afraid of you ! We have numbers 
on our side, we are brave, you cannot frighten us ! " 

As he spoke, Rachmed, who felt the necessity of immediate 
action, used the argumentuin ad liominem, and began to belabor 
this great orator. His own people were inclined to defend him, 
but we drove them back by threatening them with our weapons, 
and kept the leader in custody, stating that we would only release 
him in exchange for the eighteen donkeys and five horses which 
constituted the contingent the Lobis were to supply. The Kho- 
tanlis then intervened and acted as mediators between the two 
parties, interceding for the chief, ^v^ho was very downcast, and 
promising that they would make things all right. 

We hear the exclamations of the women upon the roofs and 
in the brushwood ; tEe dogs bark, the donkeys bray, and there is 
a general uproar. 

However, the chief, whom we had in our clutches, was con- 
soled with a cup of well-sugared tea. Timour advised him to 
think better of his decision, as he had everything to gain by 
obeying us, and as we were certain not to give him his liberty 
again until we had made sure of his co-operation. 

The chief then asked for one of his men, and ordered him to 
'' give them what they ask for." This messenger returned to the 
assembly which Avas being held some distance off, in front of the 
palace of a chief who has a ^vife belonging to Lob, though he is 
a native of Khotan. Some emissaries were at once sent back to 
us to ask that the king may be set at liberty. But we refused 
this unless certain guarantees were given us. The messengers 



COMING TO TERMS. 119 

returned and a fresh council was lield, with the result that they 
€ame back in a body, accompanied by the graybeards, who swore 
that we should have as many donkeys, guides, and gunners as we 
desii'ed, but they were not to go further than the land of the 
Kalmucks of the Tsaidame. 

They add: "We cannot show you the donkeys, because 
there has not been time to collect them, but here are the Lobis 
who will accompany you." The men are then made to step 
forward, and we are asked to examine them. Then follow 
declarations " by the beard " and " by Jupiter," and all the 
divinities are invoked, the crowd approves, gesticulates, and lifts 
up its voice, ^vhile all around us are people smiling, waving their 
arms with suppliant gestures, grinning amicably, and murmuring 
assent to whatever any of the others -may say. 

It is only at the last extremity that we agree to let the chief 
have his libei'ty, when the crowd and the chiefs who inhabit 
Tcharkalik have authorized us, by their beards, to indulge in 
reprisals if they fail in their pi'omise to supply us with what we 
require. They instruct one of their men, who offered us hospi- 
tality on our arrival, and with whom we have always been on 
friendly terms, to organize the contingent. Our host assents 
with a nod, while the other chiefs inform us that they are going 
to be absent for several days, their duty being to go and meet 
the Khan of the Kalmucks on his way back from Lhassa. 

The principal chief, having been set at liberty, soon comes 
to take leave of us, and, with his nose slightly swollen, repeats 
the promises already made, and swears that he has given orders 
for them to be executed. After a profuse display of politeness, 
he mounts his horse and rides off. Our camp relapses into com- 
parative silence, the crowd having dispersed, but we hear on all 
sides fresh exclamations and positive lamentations. What can 
have happened ? Upon inquiry we find that all the noise is 
being made by the women whose beasts have been requisitioned, 
and who are moaning and groaning to each other on the I'oofs 
"Over the sad fate of their jackasses ! 



130 ACROSS THIBET. 

We ai'e not dissatisfied with the day's ^vork ; the submission 
of the Lobis has led to that of the Douugane camel-driver, who 
obstinately declined to go any further, despite the engagement 
he had entered into, and a treaty signed with his thumb, or 
rather to which he had applied his thumb smeared in ink. But 
although the Douugane I'esigns himself to his fate, it is not 
without heaping maledictions upon those ^vho have acted as 
interpreters. He keeps on exclaiming, "I have been put into a 
bag," and vents his ill-humor upon his servitor Niaz, Avho is a 
native of Tourfan. And as Niaz has not been paid his ^vages, 
he I'etorts by asking for Avhat is owing to him, and even for a 
little on account, as he is not clad warmly enough to encounter 
severe cold. But his master is sordidly mean, and, as ISFiaz says, 
is the worst-tempered person in China. We have to interfere on 
his behalf, whereupon the Douugane takes the opportunity of 
asking for an advance from us, for he says that he has to settle 
his accounts and send money to Kourla, ISFiaz tells us not to 
believe a word of this, and says that his master will not pay his 
debts, but will hoard up his money. 

Novemhei' 15. — All these petty things indicate that it is high 
time to be off, so we finish off our preparations, writing letters, 
and paying the men ^lo are going back, as Avell as those who are 
coming with us, and others who have supplied us with provisions. 
We have added to our caravan three dogs of the country, t'wo of 
which are enormous hounds of the kind here called " pista," forty 
donkeys, and a dozen men in two detachments, one under the 
orders of Abdullah- Ousta, the other commanded by Tokta, the 
Khotanli. We have, I think, taken every conceivable precaution 
against the imknown, for \\q have with us two canoes and paddles 
in case of oar being brought to a standstill by a river, and if Ave 
do not want them for the ^vater we may be glad of them as fuel. 

November 16. — All is ready. We take with us 700 small 
bundles of hay to feed our horses, Avhich are bound to die off 
the first. We have taken into account the probabilities, not to 
say the certainty, of deaths, in order to fix the quantity of rations- 



LEAVING TGHARKALIE. 121 

we need to take with, us, and it is in proportion to tlie number of 
beasts of burden that we have ; so that the load may decrease as 
the animals die, and that the survivors may not be overburdened 
just when their strength has declined. Experience tells us about 
how mu(;h is wanted to feed the fourteen men of our regular 
army for live or, at the outside, six months. 

The sight of these bags and chests imparts courage to Kach- 
med, who exclaims : '' With the help of Allah, all will be well." 
Yet, if we are to believe the natives, we shall not go far, for they 
say that the camels will not be able to cross 'the Altyn-Tagh if 
they follow the route taken by the Englishman Carey, while the 
" little man " will have it that Prjevalsky was of the same opinion. 
However, we are impatient to put the matter to the test, and the 
start is fixed for the l7th. 

Noveiiiher 17. — In the morning the animals Avere loaded, amid 
a scene of great excitement, the whole population being present 
— women, children, friends, and relatives of those who are going 
with us. It was not merely the sight of our departure which 
attracted them, for they had come for the same reason as the 
sparrows, which, perched on the willows near the camp, were only 
waiting for oui' departure to swoop down upon the grains of 
barley on the ground, just as the crowd of onlookers was eager to 
seize the empty boxes and bits of cloth which we were leaving 
behind. 

At last the caravan is ready, and we start, amid bright sun- 
shine, accompanied by the chiefs on horseback, who will go ^vith 
us to the camp, a few miles from Tcharkalik, the first stage being 
always a very short one. It terminates at the entrance to the 
desert, upon the other bank of the small stream which forms 
the oasis, and from which we shall once again get good water. 
This, to us, who have drunk so much brackish water, is the most 
delicious of liquids. 

Forty minutes on horseback suffice to take us out of the oasis 
into the desert, and as we get out of the saddle to sit upon the 
felt where the chiefs ofi:'er us " the stirrup cup," we cast a glance 



122 ACROSS THIBET. 

toward tlie Gobi, witli its deceptive mirage of beautiful lakes, 
the mountains to the southeast just emerging out of the mist. 

Before sunset the elders bid us farewell, the Soni chief, who 
is not the least cordial among them, being of the number. To 
him, as to the others, we offer a present, and they say, as they 
wish us a successful journey, " May Allah grant you good health, 
and take you back safe and sound to your families who are so 
far off. We are poor, and we have not been able to do as much 
for you as we could have wished. You will excuse us. May 
Allah protect you ! " 

We shook hands with them and thanked them, regretting 
there should have been a little misunderstanding, but they had 
never seen any men of our race, and were suspicious. We ex- 
pressed a hope that they would henceforth receive any of our 
countrymen with open arms, and would not retain an unpleasant 
recollection of us, but regard us as friends. Then they exchanged 
confidences with the goldseekers and trappers who have deter- 
mined to go with us, and who say, " Look after my father ; urge 
my wife to be patient in my absence. Give her corn on credit ; I 
will pay when I come back. Take care of yourself. May Allah 
keep you," etc. Then they embraced one another, those of the 
same family kissing lip to lip, while others squeezed the hand of 
their seniors, who impiinted a kiss upon their foreheads. Next 
a graybeard recited a prayer, and when he had done, they all 
raised their hands to the beard and exclaimed, " Allah is great." 

The wife of Timour, a small and very active brunette, has 
remained with her husband. She is very quick at semng bags, 
while her son, a little boy of four, clad in sheepskin, with a diiiy 
face, snub nose, and the small and piercing black eyes of his father, 
amuses himself by tapping the boxes and singing, "There is 
•only one Allah," until, at simset, our three Russians make up 
their minds to part from their companions. After an exchange 
of embraces and good wishes, they I'eturn to our camp of the 
morning, where they have left theii* baggage. We hope that the 
letters they have taken will get to Europe in about three months. 



TANDAGHKAK. 123 

and we go to sleep after having gossipped about the future, being 
^11 of us agreed that so far we have succeeded wonderfully well. 

November 18. — The minimum temperature of the night was 
only 16 degrees of frost, but this was sufficient to freeze the 
river, and we take some ice out of it. We shall not get any 
drinkable water at the place where we encamp to-night, and in 
future these lumps of ice will be our only drink. 

We are in the bare and stony desert, to our right being a dark 
and indistinct mass loomina; out of the mist, which the ao-ed 
Abdullah says is the Altyn-Tagh, the gold mountains, which have 
not before been visible in our approach to them. They appear 
to be lofty, but none of their details can be distinguished, and no 
peak is visible. On the other side, he tells us, begins the land 
of ice, and we shall find it very cold. 

Our troop is rather silent, and the men, instead of chatting 
<3heerfull3^, as is their wont, flick their horses in a mechanical 
sort of way, with a fixed look on their faces. The morrow of 
separation is always melancholy, especially when one is bound for 
the unknown, and neither physically nor normally is one up to the 
mark. 

We approach some sandhills on our left, the outposts of 
the Gobi. It is here that we are to encamp, our donkeys and 
the flock of sheep we take with us for food on the road following 
us very closely, and making a pretty picture as they are driven 
along by men wearing white frieze. From the sand we get on to 
takirs fonned of clay, and then again on to the sand, going up 
and down hillocks formed by the crumbling away of the moun- 
tain and the sweepings of the plain. 

AbduUah-Ousta, getting off his horse, begins to search for 
traces of water, which he is not long in discovering by the 
p)roximity to the salt on the surface, and when the donkeys have 
been unloaded, the men take their pickaxes and dig a hole, which 
is soon filled with salt water. 

We make some tea, which we drink pending the arrival of the 
-camels with the ice, and though it is not very nice we must 



124 ACB0S8 THIBET. 

apprentice ourselves to tlie desert. I have often noticed that 
whenever one starts on a long expedition there are some cases of 
illness in the caravan, and to-day four or five men declare that 
they are quite done up, though the stage was a very short one 
and we had been favored ^vitli beautiful weather. This is what 
one may call desert sickness, similar to the discomfort experienced 
by some sailoi's for the first few days they are at sea. 

This place, called Yandachkak, abounds mth ioulgoun (tam- 
arisks), and our biilliantly illuminated encampment reminds me 
of one in the Oustcourt, Avhere there was an abundance of the 
saksaoul. Id the evening ^ve have no fewer than four fires going 
at once, and our men might perhaps be more economical of their 
fuel, but the thought that, further on, they will not be able to 
get any, makes them anxious to make the most of the oppor- 
tunity, and there is nothing more cheei'ful than the flames of a 
bright fire lighting up the gloom of the desert. 

After supper AbduUah-Ousta, accompanied by some of the 
men, comes to talk to us and to ask if we are still determined 
to follow the " old road," as that taken by Carey is called. He 
points out that we shall be brought to a stop by t^vo passes, and 
he I'epeats that Carey, with donkeys, had the greatest difiiculty 
in passing them, as Patpa would tell us. The first is called the 
" sand pass," and one reaches the foot of it by so narrow a gorge 
that very probably the camels would not be able to traverse it. 
Moreover, there is no sort of track over the sand pass. The 
second is called the " pass of stones," and its name indicates that 
it is very dangerous to camels' feet. His conclusion is that we 
should follow the " road of the Kalmucks " — that is to say, the 
Tsaidame route — which is the best, while by the old road we 
should be five days without water. 

While thanking him for his observations, we repeat that we 
intend to follow the '' old road," our conviction being that this is 
the branch of the southern route ^vhich w^e are intent on finding, and 
we add that nothing ^vill induce us to change our minds till we 
get pi'oof to the contrary. The men withdi'a^v after promising 






'^^^;tI'\ ^ '« 







TCHOUKOUK-SAI. 



VALLEY OF THE DJAIIAJ^-SAI. 127 

to serve us faithfully and obey us implicitly, and we send them 
a little tea and sugar, wMcli they drink while seated around the 
cheerful hres. The air is filled with melody, which proceeds from 
Tokta, our poet, w^ho is scraping his " dambourak," and, with a 
pure voice, is singing a very plaintive song, which strikes one as 
charming in this environment. The song seems to be inspired 
by the sand, by the cavity out of which the brackish water is 
draAvn, and by the sterility of the soil. It is the song of one 
who confesses to being overcome by nature — the plaint of a 
captive asking if he can ever escape from the forbidding soli- 
tude in which he is enveloped. 

November 19. — At break of day, we hear that the camels are 
missing. Men start off in search of them in all directions, and it 
is not long before they are led back through the desert. 

The route is monotonous and stony, and the higher we get the 
larger become the stones, which trappers have piled up at short 
intervals so as to mark off the road. 

At last, the Altyn-Tagh is visible to our right, its slopes ap- 
pearing devoid of all vegetation, eaten into as they have been by 
the waters ; and the eye can follow the burrows in which the 
shadows wind along, deeper or shallower according as whether 
they denote the course of the streams, the torrents, or the riv- 
ulets, by ^vhich the water drains off the mountain. 

Having marched for six hours nearly due east, we halt in a 
valley watered by the Djahan-Sai, which also bears the name of 
Kountchi Kan, a great Lob chief. He is said to have come from 
the Tsaidaine with his flocks, and having discovered this river 
while on a hunting expedition, it took his fancy, and he brought 
his family to settle there. This river is said always to have 
plenty of water, which we can quite believe, as its whitish, milky 
color indicates that it proceeds from a glacier. The natives say, 
indeed, that there is a small glacier at its source. The volume 
of water in this river is considerable, but the sands suck it all up 
before it reaches the Lob. About ten miles to the north of our 
camp, half-way to Abdullah, the land is irrigated and cultivated, 



128 AOROSS THIBET. 

and after the harvest is gathered the tillers of the soil go to live 
in various villages near Lake Lob. 

These indications as to a discovery made by a chief coming 
from the Tsaidame render it probable that the natives of Thibet 
must have become intermixed with the Lobis, though not to any 
great extent, a supposition to a certain extent confirmed by the 
fact that, when we had penetrated into the centner of Thibet, we 
heard the natives singing the same melodies as the people of the 
Lob Nor. 

The valley of the Djahan-Sai is characterized by blocks of 
granite which have been scored, perforated, and fashioned by 
nature, and which affect the shape of boughs, bones, shoulder- 
blades, and shafts of columns, the aspect being that of a cemetery, 
the tombs of which have been profaned, and the corpses hacked 
to pieces and scattered to the winds. 

We come upon traces of gazelles and also of donkeys, and we 
are told that some cliasseurs from the Lob have recently returned 
with the remains of koulanes, a species of horse which roam in 
large troops over the highlands. 

November 20. — In the morning the level of the river had 
risen a little. Its water is still white in color, and Abdullah- 
Ousta is confident tkat at a week's march southeast there is a 
glacier. 

We encamp at Tchoukour-Sai, and on the way come across 
some "saxaouls," from which our men at once make some fag- 
ots, being well aware that there is no wood in this district 
which emits more heat. These shrubs still bear their berries, 
but unfortunately they are unfit for food. 

Our camp is in the desert, beyond the Tchoukour-Sai — a deep 
gorge without one drop of water. AVe shall halt a day here, 
and send our animals to feed on the mountain, near to some 
water, as it is indispensable to undertake the passage of the 
Koum-Davane and the Tach-Davane with beasts which are fresh. 

November 21. — To-day is accordingly devoted to rest, after a 
night during which the temperature was only about five degrees 



THROUGH A CANON. 129 

below freezing, with a liglit breeze from tbe northwest, while in 
the daytime the thermometer rose to fifty degrees. We spend 
the day in eifecting various repairs and cleaning, everybody 
being in good-humor except the Doungane camel-driver, who has 
set up his bivouac a little way from ours, and is sulking. His 
attendant Niaz says that he is in a viler humor than ever, and 
keeps on grumbling and declaring that he has been humbugged. 
Maz adds that he is like a dog being led along with a string 
round his neck, showing his teeth all the time, and he is, there- 
fore, glad to come to the fire with our men, being always sure 
they will give him a drink of tea. 

Novemhev 22. — Three-quarters of an hour from the camp, 
after the first, but not the last, pass of this Journey, we descend 
more than 100 yards into a canon, which shapes its way south- 
ward, and comes out at the foot of the Koum-Davane. This 
canon is very picturesque seen from above ; it narrows as one 
gets higher, while immediately below us it is a narrow gorge, in 
which the water has left numerous deposits. From all sides the 
high and steep banks have caused the sand to silt down, and 
there are frequent lodgments of the alluvium, in the mass of 
which large cavities have been eaten out. 

Advancing in this defile, we reached a narrow gallery paved 
with ice, and crept under the mountain which the water has 
eaten into. It would not require a great effort of the imagina- 
tion fancy one's self in an enchanted palace. But if the entrance 
to this gallery was easy^ it was more difiicult to get out of it. 
We had to climb up steps formed by enormous stones which 
had rolled down from above, and which the camels would not 
get over. But after having examined the route further on, and 
concluded that it was practicable for these awkward animals, we 
determined to clear a passage for them at any cost. With their 
iron pickaxes our men succeeded in two hours' time in making 
the passage feasible; and, having got the camels through, we 
bent a little to the southeast, and encamped beside a stream 
which is not yet frozen over. The ^vater, though a trifle salt, is 



130 



AGB088 THIBET. 



quite drinkable, and we should he veiy tliankful never to taste 
worse. 

In this region there are plenty of traces of wild animals, such 
as wolves, foxes, and gazelles. A troop of fine animals witli 
curved horns looks down upon us from the crest of the hill as we 

get off our horses, and it is evi- 
dent, from the footprints on the 
banks of the stream, that they are 
coming down to drink. Our ap- 
pearance has brought them to 
a standstill, and when Prince 
Henry fires a shot at them, the 
whole troop scuttles off at a tre- 
mendous pace to the opposite side 
of the gorge. Prince Henry 
goes in pursuit and when night 
sets in he is still absent ; so we go 
off in search of him, for fear of 
some accident having occurred, 
\ and discover him, not far from the 
camp, upon a rock}^ ledge, from 
which he can neithei' come down 
nor go back. At last, by means 
of ropes, we get him down, and he 
returns to the camp very well satisfied at having made the ac- 
quaintance of the Koukou Yama {Pseudo Ovis, Burhell), but 
disappointed not to have found the one he had wounded. 

Thus it is that we form acquaintance with the fauna peculiai- 
to Thibet. The incident shows how quickly travel binds people 
togethei', for our men, though they had had a hard day, did not 
need any telling to go in search of Piince Henry, being sincerely 
anxious about him, and ready to start in a moment. 

I thank them, as they sit round the lu'e, f(^i' their energy, and 
it is a good sign that they do not indulge in too many protesta- 
tions, their silence indicating that they have not got any thoughts 



hf- 




THE DOUNGANE. 







GORGE AT THE FOOT 01^ THE KOUM-DA\ ANE. 



WHERE 18 THE KIZIL-80U? 133 

to conceal. Seeing, close to our camp, traces of men and donkeys, 
we question AbduUah-Ousta on the subject, and lie tells us that 
a month ago a party of fourteen men, including two of his sons, 
went on a shooting expedition in the direction of Bogalik. 
When we ask him if the Kizil-Sou is in that direction, he says 
it is, but that he has never been there. 

It is clear that whenever one speaks of the Kizil-Sou, it is 
impossible to get any information, and I notice that Abdullah- 
Ousta appears to be ill at ease, while the others, who say noth- 
ing, could give us some information, if I am not mistaken. So 
I say : 

" Has no one been to the Kizil-Sou ? Yet it is said that there 
is a great deal of gold to be found there ? Don't you know any- 
one, Abdullah, who has lived in those parts ? " 

" There is not one of us who has been to the Kizil-Sou. But 
I may say that a man of Lob is there at the present moment. 
He left the Lob last year, and we have no news of him." 

" What was his object in going ? " 

" To seek for gold, though he took arms with him for shooting, 
so that he might be able to supply himself with food, the coun- 
try being uninhabited." 

" Is he alone ? " 

" Yes, he has not even a donkey with him. He is a poor man, 
beset by creditors, to whom, not having the means to pay them, 
he gave his only son in pledge, and. as his son works for his 
principal creditor, the father, having resolved to procure his son's 
freedom, asked permission to go oif on this expedition. He 
made his own powder, got some shot given him, took his pelisse 
and his tools, and set out for the region where gold is found. 
He begged his neighbors to give themselves no further con- 
cern about him, as he did not intend to return until he had 
secured a sum sufficient to pay his debts and make him free 
of creditors for the rest of his life. He went oif at the 
beginning of last year, and we have heard nothing of him 
since." 



134 AGBOSS THIBET. 

It is difficult to say wlietlier this stoiy, whicli has quite a 
Biblical flavor, is true, or whether it has been invented by 
Abdullah- Ousta, in order to shov\^ us that he is anxious to keep 
us well informed, for there is no reading the hearts of these 
Orientals. However, we must keep our weather eye open. 



ACROSS THIBET 



BEING A TRANSLATION OF 

"DE PARIS AU TONKING- A TRAVERS 
LE TJBE^T INCONNU" 



GABlilEL BONVALOT 



WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN BY 
PRINCE HENRY OF ORLEANS 



TRANSLATED BY C. B. PITMAN 



NEW YORK 

CASSELL PUBLISHING COMPANY 

104 & 106 Fourth Avenue 



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